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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



IOWA 



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AND OTHER 



PATRIOTIC FOEMS, 



BY 



LEONARD BROWN. 



-§o§- 



Tliere will be sung another golden age." 

—Bishop Bemeley. 







DES MOINES, TOWA :^ 

CENTRAL PKINTINfr .t PLIP.LISHING CO., 

18S4. 



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.^ 



Eutered according to Act of Cougreps. in the year 1883, by 

LEONARD BROWN, 

In the office of the Librarian of Cougregs at Washington, D. C. 



Central Pkinting & Publishing Co., 

Pkinters, Des Moiues, Iowa. 



To the enlightened, patriotic and generous 'Old Set- 
tlers," who laid the foundation of Iowa's greatness on 
the everlasting granite of democratic liberty and the 
free common school, — and especially to the five hun- 
dred who have ordered copies of this little volume, in 
advance of its publication ; and particularly to Bar- 
low Granger, James Callanan, J. S. Clarkson, 
BuREN R. Sherman, H. C Hargis, Thos, Mitchell, 
Resin Wilkins, P. M. Casady, George Sneer, Si- 
mon Casady, Xatiian Andrews, J, S. Runnells, C. 
D. Reinking, Wesley Redhead, Hoyt Sherman, 
R. T.Wellslager, M. P. Turner, T. E. Brown, J. S. 
Polk, P. H. Bristow, G. W. Bristow, C. A. Mosier, 
Al Grefe,M. H. Larsh, J. C. Painter, Jno. Beck- 
with, E. R. Mason, X. R, Kuntz, P. V. Carey, 
Bruce E. Jones, George W. Donnan and John A. 
Kasson for material assistance in the present under- 
taking; also, to John Youngerman, Wm. Osborne, 
Abe Ashworth. L. T. Womacks, J. 0. Mahana, E. 
R, Clapp, B, F. Allen, D. M. Bringolf. J. 11. Mc- 
Clelland. G. A. Stewart Wm, Porter and the la- 
mented A. S. Worse, for help in my literary ventures 
of the past; and to J. A. Nash, James Smith, A. J. 
Stevens, J. C, Jordan, Edward McKenzie, Gideon 
Burge, Thos. W. Newman (of Burlington), Samuel 
Gray, S. F. Spafford, M. D. McIIenry, Wm. H, 
McHenry, p. H. Buzzard. Benj. Bryant (de- 
ceased), my helpers in my school-boy days; and to my 
friends S. A. Kelsey, N. J. Harris, Peter Neavcom- 
ER, Geo. W. Hickman, Hallett & Fuller, the 
Baylies Bros., B F. Bennett, Aug. Smith, Isaac 
Brandt, H. H. Griffiths, Frank Nagle, C. A. 
Weaver, Taylor Pierce, C. B. Worthington, the 
Laird Bros, the Skinner Bros., G, M. Walker, M. 
Kavanaugh, Sr., M. H. King, A. Craig, H. R. 
Heath, S. A. Robinson, an to all my well-wishers, 
the poem "IOWA" (immortal, if but a faint picture 
of our glorious State), is gratefully inscribed by 

THE AUTHOR. 



THE POET. 



As mighty as the sun's meridian flame, 

Among the nations glows the poet's mind,. 

Enlightening and blessing all mankind. 
How few have lived to merit his proud name ! 
Thy harp, O David, vibrates still on earth, 

Hymning melodiously Jehovah's praise ; 

Isaiah, thou thy voice in song didst raise ; 
And Jeremiah, thine the poet's birth. 
How high the honored calling of the Bard ; 

His God-given trust, how sacred and sublimed 
Freedom and.Truth and Virtue's watchful guard — 

A sentinel upon the tower of time, — 
Yes Uriel in shining armor dressed, 
Immortal honor beaming from his crest. 

July 4th, 1867. 



PREFACE. 



Part First of the poem that gives title to this vol- 
xime was written twelve years after Iowa was admit- 
ted into the Union as a State ; Part Second the fol- 
fowing t-pring, and Part Third after an interval of 
rtwenty-two years. Part First recalls reminiscences 
of Iowa's "Past," giving a view of Indian life and 
manner. ; Part Second extols her "Present" natural 
resources and scenery; and Part Third promises for 
Iowa in the near "Future" all that Isaiah pictures, 
or John of Patmos, or Virgil in his Fourth Eclogue, 
•or Pope in his Messiah. 

The "noble end" — the highest and holiest lessons on 
all topics vital to human welfare, can be reached by 
•no "nobler means" than through the channel of verse. 
This form of writing, instead of being as many think 
artificial, is, on the contrary, the most truly natural. 
Every thing animate, wliether plant or animal, is sym- 
metrical. A tree is a written poem : its leaves are 
■rhymes ; its flowers and fruit, melody ; and its mighty 
trunk, spreading branches and towering height, are 
strength, beauty and grandeur — all combined con- 
stitute true poetry. Every sentient being is a poem — 
man a sublime epic. But even inanimate nature does 
not always want symmetry — instance crystals, the 
planetary and stellary globes, drops of water, the 
rainbow and the plunging cataract — and where is not 
poetry found V Like the Infinite One, it is everywhere 
present. 

What indeed is the proper aim of poetry ? Let He- 
siod answer who wrote " Works and Days," and Vir- 



6 PREFACE. 

gil who wrote the "Georgics," and Lucan the author 
of " Pharsalia," and Juvenal, and Lucretius, and even 
Homer, greatest of all the ancient poets ; and let also 
the old masters of Englisli song speak : Dryden, Mil- 
ton, Pope, Thompson, Young, Aken-^ide, Beattie 
Burns, and even Shakfspeare, greatest of all poets. 
They will reply : '' Its chief desig-n [the words of Dry- 
den] is to instruct." It is the hand-maiden of Virtue, 
the guardian and protector of Liberty. 

But, according to some canons of recent criticism, 
poetry '>;is not as its aim any " practical or material 
utility " "Its aim," says a late author of a " Manual 
of English Rhetoric," "is not to communicate knowl- 
edge or to inlluence the will ; but only to represent 
products of creative imagination in their appiopriate 
forms in language." The author of the above defini- 
tion is not a poet. No poet will admit any such doc- 
trine to be true ; and Ijord Kames, (the greatest wri- 
ter on criticism that has lived since Qi.intilian,) says: 
" L^seful lessons conveyed to us in verse are agreeable 
by the union of music with instruction ; but." he 
adds, "are we to reject knowledge offered in a plainer 
dress? That would be rediculous; for knowledge is of 
intrinsic merit, independent of the means of acquisi- 
tion ; and there are many not less capable than will- 
ing to instruct us wlio have no genius for verse." 
Here poetry is given its proper station above prose as 
a means of education of mankind. 

The good citizen and true poet (who must be a tnie 
man) can perform no mere sacred duty than to take 
an absorbing interest in the affairs of his country and 
age. So has the humble autlior of this little volume 
ever done (thinking independently) and he has given 
expression to his most clierislied thoughts with an 
earnestness sviited to one wlio is by descent a Puritan, 
and whose great-grandsire (he "is proud to Doast) 
fought by the side of Putnam and Warren against the 
British at Bunker Hill. 



PREFACE, 7 

A dream of his in boyhood— a "vision of the night'" 
—has been an inspiration to him all his days. He 
dreamef' that he was in the same tent and inclose 
companionship with the "Father of his Country." It 
would be offensively egotistical for him to give ex- 
pression here to the faintest hope that his humble ef- 
forts with the pen — "mightier" (in the hands of the- 
favorcd of God and the good angels) "than the 
sword " — could by any means give him a place in the 
hearts of his countrymen by the [side of Washington. 
But if his success could equal his ambition, he would 
rescue his country from the dreadful condition of hu- 
miliating slavery into which she has been i)lunged by 
gold-bribed traitors, and he would place her feet 
again upon the solid granite of freedom and indepeur- 
dence. 

Great Britain resolved to conquer America, She 
has succeeded in fastening upon our people an interest 
bearing debt — bonds and mortgages— amounting fro 
not less than twenty billions of dollars ; and thus she 
exacts from us a vastly greater tribute than from all 
her direct dependencies. Her agents were sent over 
to prepare the way for our enslavement. Bonamy 
Price, the Oxford professor, travelled extensively here, 
lecturing in our principal cities and chief towns. He 
spoke in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to the "grangers," tell- 
ing them that "gold is the only money." Great 
American statesmen, who had won the confidence of 
our people during the civil war — trusted leaders North 
and South — were gained over to the British interest. 
The friends of American freedom and independence 
uttered their patriotic protests in vain — unheeded by 
the people, blinded by party spirit, and hoodwinked 
by venal demagogues. 

This little volume is the work of almost a life-time, 
and the author will ever live conscious of having, 
striven to accomplish that which, if successful, will 



S PRhFACE. 

"be more to Iowa's honor and glory thiin even the new 
Capitol, which (to the disgrace of either the build- 
ing committee or of theState itself,) is to be decorated 
■within w tli paintings executed, not by Iowa artists, 
l)ut by Italian. Oh, let the patriot hang down his 
head in sorrow and shame, and never turn his eyes to 
look upon the walls and ceilings of that costly build- 
ing — a monument of the tax-gatherer's rapacity and 
the shame of Iowa genius! Encourage Iowa talent 
iind leave the Italian to ply his vocation of artist in 
Italy. Let the ceilings and walls of our public build- 
ings exhibit vMily the handicraft of Iowa artists, and 
let our public libraries be filled to overflowing with 
the works of Iowa authors especially. This only is 
patriotism, justice and right. Encourage Iowa poets 
and artists, and Iowa will outrival very soon, in this 
line of excellence, Italy and Greece. God has done 
more for Iowa (the lovliest land embraced by tlie 
grandest rivers) than for any other land on earth— let 
her own people do tlieir part to encourage Art and 
Literature at home and her name will be exalted. But 
costly theatres are being erected in every large town 
in the State, and their walls and ceilings decorated 
with all the gaudiness that money can purchase or 
European fresco painters can daub on— for what pur- 
pose? to encourage line art and literature — the hand- 
maiden of religion and morality, for the education of 
the people? No. Money is the sole end in view,— 
beliind all is avarice. A display of the legs of bra- 
zen-faced harlots on the stage, is the enticing attrac- 
tion the youth of Iowa are called \\\w\\ to pay their 
money to see, and shamelessly indecent collocjuies to 
hear recited. These schools of vice, joined with tlie 
mirror-decorated wine and beer saloons and billiard 
halls lictmsed by the State, and liouses of prostitutou 
in every large towui, winked at and encouraged by the 
officers of the law, luive about supplanted the church 
of our fathers. If the patriot poet raise his indig- 
nant voice of protest against these evils that threaten 
the life of society, give him, O reader a kindly hear- 
ing- 

LEONARD BROWN. 
Des IMoiNES, low.v, Dec, 15, 1S83 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Iowa, Part First 12 

Iowa, Part Second 41 

Iowa, Part 'I iiird 61 

POEMS OP THE PRESENT 

THE OUTLOOK: 

Part First -The CoMiNQ Rkform 95 

Part Sbconu— Thk Triumph of Monopoly 104 

Part Third— Ten Tyrants ok the Gown 110 

Part Fourth— The Triumph of Woman 131 

England AND EtiYPT 142 

Crime's Caknivai 150 

The New Party 158 

The TRUff: 169 

Broth EiiooD 175 

Albion's Disgrace 181 

The Patriot's Choice 186 

The Copperhead 192 

LicKNSE Wrong 195 

An "Amendment " Sonnett 196 

Tyrannous enoland 197 

FORaWARNED 199 

Civil Rights 201 

•Grantism (Jauroted 202 

Pass the Hat 204 

Epitaphs 205 

Lines to Mr, Kasson 206 

Old Memories .'... 218 

To Wm. Van DoRN 221 

To R. W. Stubus 222 

To Robert L. Clingan 224 

.RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT: 

Sonnets 227 

To Carping Critics 240 

APPENDIX. 

. :Part I— The Vital Issue 3 

iPart II— The Triumph op Lap.ok 31 

PabtIII— The Rights of Lajjor 46 



POESY. 



Is Poesy, then, only garden flowers 

That, cultivated with a kindly care. 

With beauty glow, and sweetly scent the air, 

And lovers languish in the leafy bowers ? 

'Tis might, — behold the dreaded lion cowers 
(Before the strong man) smitten in his lair: 
See the fierce Norman slay the Russian bear. 

'Tis beauty not unlike the smiling Hours ! 

'Tis might and beauty gracefully con^bined — 
See Dian in the groves withbowand quiver; 

She slays the tusky boar, pursues the hind ; 
She views her radiant tresses in the river ; 

The blameless beauty blesses all mankind — 
Yea, God to man of Poesy's the giver ! 

July, 18G5, 



IOV\^A. 
PART FIRST. 

(1858.) 



This piece (Iowa, Part First,) was written after tlie 
Author's return to Polk county from school at Bur- 
lington, Iowa. He spent tlie spring and summer of 
1858 under tlie shelter of liis father's humble log-cab- 
in roof at Savior's Grove. His "study" was the woods, 
where he walked, composing rhymes, until he made a 
well-beaten path under the shadow of beautiful trees. 
This composition is, perhaps, the most polished of 
any of the Author's verses— too great license of al- 
literation being indulged, as the reader will observe. 
He took his pictures of Indian life from a little work 
entled -'The Life of Blackhawk." 

The lines of seven and eight syllables are after the 
manner of many English poems written in the 
eighteenth century, the " Ode to Solitude" by Gran- 
ger, and "Grongar Hill," by Dyer, being examples of 
this stvle of versification. 



IOWA. 



PART FIRST, 



THE PAST. 

A MORNING'S MEDITATION ON THE BANKS OF THE DES 

MOINES. 

"Every human heart is human.",— 'Loi<!QFEL1.ow. 

It is a pleasant summer morn ; 
Gently waves the growing corn ; 
Erom the leafy groves, the air 
Wafts a fragrance everywhere ; 
And along the eastern sky 
Lovely sunbeams greet the eye, 
That o'er fairy clouds diffuse 
Tinges of unnumbered hues. 
At length the Sun himself appears. 
Great herald of revolving years ! 
And smiles as radiant and young 
As when immortal Ossian sung ! 
Thou giver of the lovely day ! 
From thee I turn my face away; 
I cannot for a moment brook 
Thy searching glance thy piercing look ; 
But gladly on this stream I gaze, 



«4 /OIVA. 

From which thy ever-splendent rays 
Have driven the mists, that o'er it spread 
Dark as the Hving cloud so dread 
That hovered o'er a pleasant land 
As one of old "stretched out his hand." 
I love upon these banks to stray 
Thus at the swe_^t approach of day, 
And gazing on the beautious stream- 
To wander in poetic dream. 
I hear a distant lonely sound, 
That carries sadness all around ! 
'Tis of the ever mournful dove 
Sighing for her absent love. 
Here let me recline my head 
^ Pensive on this mossy bed, 
T^earer by the river side, 
Where waters murmur as they glide, — 
That my ear may catch again 
The ever tender, saddening strain; 
For it moving, moaning on 
Hecalls to mind the loved ones gone, 
"Whom bright angels bore away 
To realms of everlasting day. 
-Now there eomes a deeper moan ; 
'Tis sadder than a dying groan! 
The waves are sighing as they flow, — 
Methinks are singing as they go, 
A mournful melancholy lay, — 
The dirge of a departed day. 



IOWA. 15 

SONG OF THE WAVES. 

The dead ! The dead ! The dead are here ! 

Ask not the day, ask not the year, 

When loved ones bore them on the bier, 

And laid them lowly in the ground. 

And made the monumental mound ! 

Age hath followed ages fast ; 

The streams new channels formed and past. 

And deep through rocks have worn their way 

Since they mouldered into clay : 

The patriot brave who thoughtful stood 

Looking down upon this flood ; 

His country's wrongs were in his breast ; 

Eye-flashing rage his look expressed, 

Revenge resolving on her foes — 

His blood redeemed her from her woes; 

Rest thee, O warrior, in repose! 

The lovely maid who oft of yore 
Gathered wild flowers on this shore, 
Strolling in the happy grove, 
Caroling a song of love ; 
Now bathing in the limpid waves ; 
Now in the cooling breeze she laves, 
And gazing, like fair Eve, with pride 
In the pellucid mirror-tide, 
Viewing there her form and tace, 
All radiant with every grace, 
She modestly and sweetly smiled, — 



I 6 /OIVA. 

Behold her, Naturt's lo\'ely child ! 
She sleeps in death, low in the gronnd, 
Beneath the ancient grassy mouitd. 

And the Bard, (wliose sonsj^ was given — 
A light to guide from Earth to Heaven) — 
There lies, with harp beneath his head, 
Unstrung, decayed ; its voice is dead ! 
To all resistless was its spell, 
While sang the aged Minstrel 
The sylvan beauties of these streams; 
The hero's wondrous deeds and dreams ; 
Love's longing looks, and soul-born smiles; 
Her hidden hopes, and winsome wiles. 
And shall its strains no more arise 
Rejoicing to these western skies. 
As wild birds sing, and waters flow, 
And lovely prairies verdant grow ? 

O stream, how touching is thy lay ! 
And must great worth thus find decay, 
And all man's glory fade away ? 

THE INDIAN. 

From thee has gone the Indian brave; 
Nor Sac, nor Fox beholds thy wave; 
And yet upon thy margin green 
Not long ago his lodge was seen, 
In its wild, fantastic form, — 
An humble covert from the storm ; 
His trembling maize field stood hard by ; 



IOWA. .17 

His bean-and-melon-patch was nigh; 
His pony fed upon the plain, — 
See all the Indian had of gain! 
And well content, when thus supplied; 
His every want was satisfied; 
His happy heart, with love of gold, 
Had not begun to rot or mould ; 
The needy stranger at the door 
Was welcome to the red man's store, 

I have often in delight 
Seen the meteor at night, 
With a glorious display, 
Darting hurridly away 
Across the star-bespangled sky, 
Joying in its course on high ; 
It soon vanished from my view, 
Buried in the boundless blue, 
Leaving not a trace behind 
Of the glory it resigned. 

The Indian passed away, and lo ! 
What is left behind to show 
That he drew Ulysses' bow? 
He often earned immortal fame; 
But what perpetuates his name? 
What monument remains to tell 
Where, like Leonidas, he fell? 
Many an unknown field may be 
A Marathon or Thermopylae! 
2 



i8 - 101 K^. 

All he for ages said or did 
Must ever lie in darkness hid ; 
Only here a grassy sod 
Marks where once his wigwam stood, 
And some little pits remain 
That in winter held his grain. 
The sweet flowing " Chicaqua," * 
And the bright " Asipala,"t 
Lost are these names to rivers clear; 
While the ruder ones we hear 
Ungrateful to the poet's ear! 
Still round the graves, and o'er the dead 
Some mossy bark and boards are spread 
It was of these the mourners made 
A little wigwam for his shade, 
To be for it a slieltering home, 
Until he o'er the prairie roam, 
And, wandering find the rolling flood. 
That flows this side the hai)p\' wood — 
The ever-joyful hunting ground 
In which exhaustless game is found. 
There — if his course of life had been 
Bright and free from trace of sin — 
He would cross the trembling log 
With his ever faithful dog, 
And jm'n his comrades in the chaise, 
And live in entlless happiness; 
If like the hound, he come there hoarse 
From baying on a \icious course, 
He cannot reach the happy wood, 
*Skunk liivev. fRaceoon River. 



/OIVA. 19 

Rut quickly falls into the flood; 
Then rolling, howling, in the tide. 
He struggles for the nearest side, — 
Every effort is in vain, 
To reach the woodland or the plain ; 
The rushing wave, with mighty roar, 
Sweeps him to a barren shore ; — 
Degraded there in poverty, 
He finds eternal misery. 

Meandering the prairies green 
Still the Indian path is seen. 
Bending over wooded hills. 
Crossing sweetly flowing rills. 
Wandering near it thoughtfully. 
Imagining most pleasantly. 
Rare visions of the fairest kind. 
Came on bright before my mind. 

A CEREMONY. 

I saw a long, lamenting train 
Of women passing o'er the plain, 
Appearing as they had before 
Annually in days of yore; 
]N'[oaning matrons moving on, 
And weeping widows, one by one ; 
Sorrowing sisters were the last 
In the procession as it passed — 



20 IOWA. 

So very sad ; and yet, I ween, 
There never was a lovelier scene 
Than they presented to my sight, 
Performing this religious rite, 
Of bearing gifts, and proffering 
To their dead an offering; 
All the maidens passed along 
Chanting wild and mournful song. 

THE INDIAN MAIDS' SONG. 

"Again returns the day of sadness! 
Again returns the day of gladness ! 
The Great Spirit has bereft us ; 
The Great Spirit has not left us ; 
Friends are gone ; nor do we greet them ; 
Friends are gone; but we shall meet them J 
Good Spirits hover o'er us lightly ; 
Good Spirits shine above us brightly; 
From the rocks and caves they started ; 
From the rocks and caves departed. 
When they heard us weeping, moaning, — 
When they heard us sighing, groaning; 
On their swan-like wings came fleeting; 
On their swan-like wings came greeting — 
Greetiug us , ana now are near us ; 
Greeting us with words to cheer us : 
' Weep no more ; be not fearful ; 
Weep no more ; be calm and cheerful — 
The Great Spirit loves you dearly; 



lOlVA. 21 

The Great Spirit knows how nearly 
His good children are unto him; 
His good children all shall view him ; 
View him and dwell with him ever; 
View him and be parted never; 
Never more shall sigh in sorrow ; 
Never more shall dread the morrow! 
Let this, then, be day of gladness; 
Let it not be one of sadness ; 
Weep no more ; be not fearful ; 
Weep no more; be calm and cheerful' !" 

And appearing truly fair, 
With their zephyr combed hair 
Flowing over shoulders bare, 
And the dark expressive eye, 
Hopeful turned towards the sky, — 
Angel form ; romantic dress ; 
They were queens in lovliness ! 
Now all have reached the burial place. 
And there I can more clearly trace 
The deepening of their wild distress, — 
The dead they mournfully address!- 
The mother thus : — 

" My babe so dear ! 
My little darling, Oh, come near; 
Let me again behold thy face. 
And with fond kisses thee embrace ! 
Something I see most lovely, fair, 



22 



lOJVA. 

And bright, above me in the air, — 
'T is sure, 't is sure my very Child ! 
Come nearer still, thou vision mild, 
And never, never more depart! 
Oh. could I press thee to my heart ! 
Thanks, thanks to Onwenah above, 
Who thus would spare thee in his love, 
To calm thy mother's stormy breast, 
To give her wearied spirit rest ; 
For now. no more, no more I weep ! 
My soul with rapture glories deep ; 
Since I behold on wings of light, 
My child so beautiful and bright ! 

The widow : — 

"O, my husband, why. 
Why wilt thou not descend from high, 
And to my sorrowing soul convey 
Of thy bright joy a single ray ! 
Forlon, forlon, I here must be ! 
O dearest, dearest, pity me. 
And take me once again to thee! 
Enwrap me in thy arms once more, 
And on the bright celestial shore, 
Where nothing in immortal groves 
May ever more distract our loves! 
O husband! when with flagging pace 
Thou art returning from the chase. 
Oppressed with toil ; thy arrows spent ; 



IOWA. 23 

Thy back with fleshy burden bent; 
Who now doth strain her anxious sight 
To see thee gain the woody height, 
And, when thy shadow there doth stray, 
So soon is on her willing way 
To bear a part of thy dull load 
And lead thee to the fair abode. 
Where viands for thee she hath blest. 
That thou may'st eat and sweetly rest? 
And when thou liest wrapped in sleep 
Doth o'er thee midnight vigil keep, 
And, as the moon, serenely bright, 
Enchants the wigwam with her light — 
Reveals the features of thy face, 
Who doth thee lovingly embrace? 

" Brothers, [thus the sisters said,] 
Return from wandering with the dead! 
Receive this offered gift of ours; 
Receive these lovely prairie flowers! 
We lay them gently on the tomb 
To please you with their sweet perfume; 
They are the fairest we can find 
Disporting in the prairie wind! 
On plucking them they seemed to say, 

' We gladly go with you away 
To form the happiest bouquet! 
A token, beautiful, of love 
From friends below to friends above. ' 
And other presents, too, we bring 



24 IOWA. 

With this our kindly offering — 
Your bow and arrows here we place ; 
For you may need them in the chase; 
And your ornaments so fair, 
We now leave them in your care. 
On your graves no wilding grows. 
Pebbles mark where you repose; 
Pebbles that to-day we took 
From the gently flowing brook; 
And above you they are spread 
As on the silvery minnow's bed. 
Here we also leave you food ; 
For it is a weary road 
You again must travel o'er 
Ere you reach the happy shore. " 
This said, the radiant vision fair 
Vanished quickly into the air. 



THE TWO BROTHERS. 

And then two youths of gentle mien 
Went gliding by me o'er the green, 
Who so great beauty had, and grace, 
And loveliness in form and face, 
That, (as I had not long before 
Been glancing into ancient lore) 
I thought of yEneas goddess born ! 
How he, when cast away, forlorn. 
Upon the Carthagenian strand, 



lOlVA. 25 

Did first before Queen Dido stand, 

Delivered from the misty cloud 

That hid him from the busy crowd, — 

How beauty sparkled in his eyes, 

Beauty descended from the skies ! 

The goddess curled his flowing hair; 

Gave him youthful vigor rare; 

Crowned his brow with ambient light; 

Made his face serenely bright. 

Like polished ivory beauteous bold, 

Or Parian marble gemmed with gold. 

I thought of fair Apollo, too, 

With his far-shooting silver bow, 

And golden quiver, glittering bright. 

And arrows dipped in healing light, — 

God of benevolence and truth ; 

The god of beauty and of youth — 

Immortal, glorious, fearless, young — 

Sweet his heavenly lyre rung ; 

The soul of harmony he fired ; 

The silent muses he inspired. 

Would thou, my Muse, by him were taught, 

Had spark of heavenly fire caught. 

Like sirens on the lonely isle, 

To charm the passer-by awhile. 

That he might lend attentive ear 

This story from thy lips to hear — 

(Of no imaginary act, 

But well-authenticated fact) 

Of love two youths each other bore — 



26 IOWA. 

So great as seldom known before! 

They brothers were, and they were wr;^ ; 

And true they were not " white;"' but then 

'T is not the color of the skin 

That tells us of the heart within. 

The)' lived together; hunted game; 

And, beside, they thought of fame. 

However much men in their talk, 

The love of glory seem to mock. 

Should they the truth in candor own. 

Would gladly have their own names known; 

For "t is a feeling, and confest, 

Which dwells in almost every breast 

From that of humblest of the earth 

To those of highest rank and birth. 

And God himself — Ancient of Days! — 

Commands that men shall sing his praise. 

Who would not, like the Condor, seek 

To gain the Andes' loftiest peak, 

Could he thence on wings arise, 

And soar to\\'ard the azure skies 

And pass pale Cynthia in his flight, 

And on the morning star alight, 

And there amid effulgence dwell 

For longer time than tongue can tell? 

No labors are for man too hard 

Where renown is the reward; 

For this did Raphael command 

The pencil with untiring hand; 

For this Beethoven, deaf and old, 



/OJJ'A. 27 

Unwrapped sheet music's every fold; 

For this bhnd Milton sought in song, 

And toiled so deep, and toiled so long! 

The love of praise raised up, we know, 

Demosthenes and Cicero; 

'Twas this that fashioned the "Greek Slave;"" 

'T was this made Bonaparte so brave. 

Among Red Men the surest way 

To honor, is the foe to slay ; 

Him they call supremely great 

Who can most martial deeds relate. 

The brothers, then, we cannot blame 

For feeding the heroic flame. 

The elder, chasing deer one day 

Beyond the praries, far away, 

Came where the hunting-ground he saw 

Of the long hated Dakoti; 

Before his mind rose every one 

Of all the wrongs that had been done 

By that dread people to his own, — 

(His aged father they had slain. 

Whilst he was passing o'er the plain, 

And e're they let his soul depart. 

Tore from his breast his bleeding heart, 

And, fiend-like, laughed to see it pant, — 

On high they flung it for a taunt!) 

Could he restrain his raging ire, — 

From his veins expel the fire, — 

As appeared distinct in view 

One that seemed the savage Sioux? 



28 IOWA. 

" Be true," said he, " my trusty bow, 
Lay the abhorred vilHan low! 
And then an arrow keen he took; 
With flint 't was pointed from the brook; 
And feathered from the eagle's wing ; 
And bound around with sinew stnng. 
The bow he drew with mighty force ; 
The dart went hissing on its course, 
Unseen, so swift it winged the air ; 
He saw it seek the bosom bare ; 
And, though afar it then had sped. 
He saw the blood come gushing red. 
The victim threw his hands on high 
And sunk upon the turf to die ; 
The victor made exulting shout — 
A foe was slain he had no doubt. 
O youth, what fate must thee attend, 
Should it not prove a foe ; hut frknd? 
Now with an eager haste he ran, 
And stood above the dying man, 
And stooping down, the scalp to take,. 
(A trophy for his honor's sake,) 
When lo, instead of hated Sioux, 
The friendly loiva he knew ! 
He paused : the knife fell to the ground ; 
He drew the arrow from the wound. 
Like the stern commander bold 
Who by the messenger is told, 
" The city of deserved hate 
Will on no terms capitulate ; 



IOWA. 29 

But dare unto the latest hour 

With deadly scorn defy his power." 

Anger rushes to his face ; 

He cries aloud, " The mortars place ; 

For she shall yield in dire disgrace ! " 

Ten thousand comets, as it were, 

Soon are flaming in the air. 

As if then; course had wrathful fled 

To descend upon her head ! 

Death and Destruction reign around ; 

And mighty Ruin strews the ground! 

Behold ! her gates she opens wide ; 

The hero enters them in pride! 

His plume is waving in the wind ; 

His soldiers follow him behind; 

High he holds his peerless head ; 

Beneath his feet he spurns the dead ; 

Until he finds — now free from pain — 

A lovely lady 'mong the slain — 

Sweetly wrapped in death — at rest — 

A smiling infant on her breast. 

Behold the hero bowing low! 

Adown his cheek the warm tears flow! 

He takes the babe upon his arm. 

And saves the innocent from harm. 

And so the youth ; how his he irt bled ! 

How fain would he have raised the dead! 

Alas! he finds his grief too late; 

So firm are the decrees of fate ! 

Before those eyes a darkness rose ; 



30 lOJVA. 

The spirit sought a long repose. 

Awhile he stands in mute suspense ; 

Then with a tender eloquence : — 

" And thou hast found the spirit land, 

Sent by an undesigning hand ; 

My hopes with thine are at an end ; 

For this my death must make amend." 

And then his way he homeward bent, 

Soliloquizing as he went : — 

" * No, he did it purposely, 

And to escape doth falsify.' 

Thus will they answer my defense, 

When I avow my innocence 

Of having murdered by design. 

I planly see what fate is mine, 

And to the same myself resign. 

Some months had passed, when men were 

sent 
Him to demand for punishment ; 
And they found him on his bed ; 
Disease had humbled low his head ; 
Yet willing was, at their command, 
To rise and seek the foreign land ; 
And their unfeeling orders were, 
" By coming morn he should prepare 
With them to go upon the way ; 
Or ill or well, he must obey." 



lOJVA. 31 



THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 

A lovely " Iowa " villag^e stood 

Within the shadow of a wood, 

And by the margin of a stream ; 

How happy did its people seem ! 

Around the council-house behold 

A great concourse of young and old ! 

Is not the purpose of the throng 

The avenging of a wrong? 

And was the youth torn from his bed, 

And here belore accusers led? 

A youth of humble modesty 

Within the council-house we see ; 

Such beauty brightening in his face 

As would well an angel grace; 

Reclining lowly on the ground, 

While chiefs and braves with look profound, 

Are seated in a circle round. 

Behold the leading chief arise ! 

Now on the youth he rests his eyes, 

A nd thus he speaks in accents slow : — 

" Ere this the just avenging blow 

Deep in the dust hath laid you low ; 

But ancient custom of our land, 

Bids that you first before us stand, 

With privilege of self defense 

With all you have of eloquence." 

And so, the youth rose from the ground. 



32 IOWA. 

And cast a pleasant look around ; 
Then from his robe freed his right arm, 
And stood erect, nor in alarm. 
All eyes surveyed the brave young man, 
As with sweet accent he began : — 

"Fathers! I have my death-song sung; 

With joy my voice in numbers rung; 

For as I came along to die, 

I heard the honey-bee flit by ; 

Its course it turned toward the sky. 

Methought it spake my spirit so: — 
'Arise, arise, from fields below 

To where the sweeter flowers blow ! 

Their cups of bliss to thee no more 

Shall close upon the happy shore.' 

Wherefore grim Death, then, should I fear ?• 

My own free choice doth bring me here! 

It is not. Fathers ! my desire 

That words shall mitigate your ire ; 

The tom'hawk en my head must fall ; 

Nor this may I injustice call; 

It would not now the stroke prevent 

To claim my brother innocent 

Of having with vile purpose slain 

One of your braves upon the plain. 

Fathers ! here I take the place 

Of him whom you would now disgrace ; 

Into your hands my life I give; 

O, that my brother long may live ! 



/OWA. 33 

Upon his bed he lies, too ill 
Himself your mandate to fulfill ! 
I came without his own consent, 
And much he strove me to prevent; 
Such has his kindness to me been 
Would I NOT die (or him, 't were sin." 

Thus having said, again he sate 
Him down among these men of state, 
And there awaited calm his fate. 
Did they arise with furious yell, 
Bend over him like fiends of hell. 
Bury the tom'hawk in his brain. 
And bid him sleep, nor wake again ? 
Ah no, full glad am I to say 
How well they welcomed him that day ! 
They freely gave the friendly hand. 
And bade him with the bravest stand ; 
And then resolved to make a feast 
In honor of the worthy guest ! 
So, down into the glen they go. 
Hard by the rivulet below, — 
I trow, no fairer spot of ground 
In all the boundless West is found ! 
Dame Nature there has carpet spread. 
The giant oaks nod overhead ; 
'Neath craggy rock is sylvan spring. 
Near which by moonlight maidens sing ; 
Nor distant hence afar is found 
A spacious grot beneath the ground 
3 



34 IOWA. 

Where oft young men and maids repair, 
And presents in their hands they bear 
For the good spirit that dwells there. 
Then as the dusky eve draws nigh, 
They seek a mossy seat hard by, 
Where they may catch the lovely sound 
Of water as it trickles down 
From a shelving rock above ; 
Here they sit and talk of love; 
And oftentimes prolong their stay 
While Hesperus crowns departing day. 
And after she has long sought rest 
On her couch low in the west. 
A deep-worn circle, too, is seen. 
Near by the spring, upon the green. 
Where now young braves are chanting loud 
And aged warriors, bold and proud — 
(All painted o'er with many a hue ; 
And each a hieroglyphic true — 
Telling of the foes they slew) 
Are dancing many an antic round, 
To rudest instrumental sound; 
Waving the war-club oft on high 
Or pointing arrows to the sky, 
Portraying how they battles gained, 
Or how the bison's blood they drained, 
Or how the bow, from crag on high, 
Brought down the eagle bold to die. 
All the village throng is there, — 
The young, the old, the brave, the fair. 



/OIVA. 35 

So that now under every tree 
A group there is in gladsome glee! 
Participating in the sport, 
Their guest is happy as at court ! 
Meanwhile are matrons hurrying fast 
To prepare the rich repast. 
Soon, at a well-known signal, all, 
Male and female, great and small, 
Place themselves in order round, 
Low seated on the grassy ground ; 
While those that are of high degree 
On elevated mound we see — 
A place of greater dignity — 
And honored far above the rest, 
We may behold the youthful guest. 
To him they first refreshment bring, 
And then to others of the ring 
Promiscuously, till soon 't is known 
That well supplied is every one; 
When with great joy they all partake 
Of bounteous gift of wood and lake; 
Of maize-bread, product of the soil ; 
But most of fruit of huntsman's toil, — 
The flesh of buffalo and bear ; 
Of the elk and of the deer; 
And fish — the pike and salmon rare — 
All that fair Nature here affords 
Graces this banquet of her lords; 
Much of the fruit of vine and tree 
And honey of the working bee. 



36 lOJVA, 

How sweet a nectar, too, they briog 
From the ever-bubbHng spring! 
Bubbling from the sands below — 
Sands as pure and white as snow ! 
How happy was the feast, and long; 
And echoed oft the hills with song — 
Song of welcome to the stranger — 
Welcome there, all free from danger!. 

A SONG OF WELCOME. 

Welcome, stranger, welcome here ! 
Thou art welcome to our cheer ! 

Has he not a loving brother. 

And may be a sister dear, 
And an old heart-broken mother, 

And an aged father near, 
Who are now bowed down in sorrow 

For this loved one good and brave. 
Fearing lest the coming morrow 

Find him slumbering in the grave ? 

Do not think our eyes so blinded ; 

Do not think our souls so vile ; 
Do not think us so dark minded ; 

Do not think us lost in guile, 
That we cannot see, all glowing ! 

Light — a spark from God above I 
Or seeing, and its purpose knowing. 

Would stifle such a light of love! 



/OJVA. 37 

Welcome, stranger, welcome here ! 
Thou art worthy of our cheer! 

The sun his face began to hide 
Within the vast Pacific tide, 
Ere they the village reach again, 
Where all seek rest save the young men, 
They on their coursers ride afar 
While lingers the bright evening star. 
It was indeed a lovely sight 
To look upon them by moonlight, 
Dashing through woods and over plains — 
Without saddle, without teins ! 
Now all meeting in one place. 
Loud neigh the horses for the race ; 
The riders bending forward then. 
Their coursers (more than ten times ten) 
Spring onward with a mighty bound ; 
The prairies tremble far around ; 
And thundering hoofs on air resound. 
They speed, they speed full fast away! 
But see two steeds of glossy bay — 
How sweet the moonbeams on them play ! 
They leave the others far behind — 
Much like the Anglo-Saxon mind 
In great achievements for mankind. 

The night is past, bright morning glows; 

And all have had a calm repose ; 

And they have said their fervent prayers 



38 lOJVA. 

To Him who ever for them cares, — 

(To whom devotedly they pray, 

At morn and eve of every day). 

Now, ere the stranger guest depart, 

They show again a kindly heart. 

By making presents to him there, 

Which he may with his brother share : 

Two good suits of hunters' clothes. 

Two wampum belts, and two strong bows; 

Then many of their dearest beads ; 

And last, the pair of bright bay steeds, 

Which on the happy eve before 

In the race had triumph bore ! 

He, joyful went to greet his brother ; 
Long they lived to love each other. 

THE CONCLUSION. 

And now, fair stream, have I mused long, 

And lengthened out a thankless song ! 

It is thy fault, sweet stream, I say, 

That I have wandered so away ! 

Why do the lovely sunbeams lave 

And glisten in th)^ rippling wave ? 

Why do the willows on thy brink 

Bow down their heads and seem to drink ? 

Why does the pretty "silver-side" 

Play through thy waters so in pride? 

Had never these mv vision crossed 



IOWA. 39 

Perhaps I had not now been lost ! 

Why is that venerable mound 

Upon thy level margin found ? 

Who made it thus of earth and stone 

To thee, O ancient stream, 'tis known ! 

I look upon it, and my mind 

In thought no resting-place can find ; 

I think that it, perhaps, was built 

Where blood, a deluge, had been spilt ; 

Perhaps, beneath where it arose 

Bon:s of a patriot repose; 

While this alone by it is told, — 

"A people dwelt here once of old;'' 

And seems to mention with the same, — 

''They dwelt here ere the Indian came!' 

The Indian ! Keokuk the great ! 

Pride of a patriotic State ! 

In battle, braver ne'er was one ; 

In wisdom, the bright noonday sun ; 

In eloquence, a crowned king, — 

Surpassed by none in anything 

That can exalt a Red Man's name 

And give to him undying fame ! 

No power so strong — no base-born bribe — 

Could lead him to betray his tribe. 

Be ye reproved, vile statesmen old, 

Who love your country less than gold! 

'' I liked my towns — my corn fields, too: 

For these, white man, I fought you f' 



40 101 VA. 

Thus speaks the wronged Indian dead ; 
'Twas thus the patriot Black Hawk said. 
Be long, my lovely Iowa, be 
Home of as noble-hearted free ! 

Thou stream, farewell ! I shall be lorn 
'Till smiling dawns another morn, 
When here I once again may stray 
And while an happy hour away ! 

Satlok's Grove, jcne, 1858. 



IOWA. 
PART SECOND. 

(1859) 



Iowa, (Part Second), is an attempt to paint pleas- 
ing pen-pictures of natural scenery— a most diHicult 
undertaking. In this I'oesy and^Painting come near 
each other and become entitled to be called ''Twin 
Sisters." 

The pleasant Spring of 1859, spent in Saylor's Grove, 
like the Spring and Summer before, Avere halcyon 
days to the young writer. Then his hopes were bright 
est. But the dreams of youth are often wilted by the 
frosts of later life. There is this compensation, lioM'ev- 
er: Our disappointments are a school-master to us. If 
we, (like Socrates and Tasso) are under the protection 
of some heavenly guardian and arc predestined, (like 
Joseph) to be a benefactor of our kindred and coun- 
trymen, the way to success lies not necessarily along 
pleasant paths, nor can the persecuting jealousy of 
little men prevent our final triumph. 



IOWA, 



PART SECOND. 



THE PRESENT. 

A MORNINGS MEDITATION ON THE BANKS OF THE DBS 
MOlNES. 

"Let all the ends thou aimest at he thy country's. 
Thy God's, and truth's."— Siiaksveawe. 

I now the wished-for morn behold ; 
The sun displays his crown of gold; 
But many smiling days have flown, 
The dove hath uttered many a moan, 
Since I, reclining here alone, 
Mused in melancholy mood. 
As the sorrowful Past I viewed. 
Let my thoughts this morning be 
From all melancholy free ; 
Indeed, the Present gives my mind, 
Of images a pleasing kind ; 
And the Future meets my view 
Illumined with a golden hue. 

Are not these Western streams as fair 
As Tiber, Thames, the Seine, or Ayr, 



44 /OIVA. 

Danube, Vistula, Guadalquivir, 
Or any European river ? 
If e'en to Asia I should go, 
And there behold the Hoang-ho, 
Euphrates, Indus, Irawaddy, 
Bramapootra, and Cambodia ; 
And stray through Africa awhile — 
Behold the Niger and the Nile — 
When from my wanderings I'come 
And view again the streams at home, 
I ask, would these not seem to me ■ 
As fair as those beyond the sea ? 
Iowa, virgin State, is seen 
Arrayed now in her robes of green — 
A maid of more than mortal charms — 
Diana in two happy arms, 
As if from high come down again 
To fair Endymion of men. 
The river on her eastern side 
Exalts my patriotic pride ! 
It needs no sounding trump of fame 
To send abroad the well known name. 
The British bard would glad depart 
From the monotony of Art, 
Displayed before him all the while. 
Upon his much loved native Isle, 
Where hedges white in May, as snow 
Checker the land where'er he go, — 
The flowery scene is fair, I know; 
But Nature, wild and primitive, 



VOIVA. 45; 

There no longer seems to live, 

Right glad would he depart, I say, 

On Mississippi's banks to stray. 

Along Iowa's western side 

Flows the Missouri deep and wide, — 

Rivers beautiful and great 

Are the pride of any State; 

And who will question this so true,. 

That Iowa hath not a few ? 

Hers are the great and little Sioux, 

The Turkey ahd Makoqueta, 

Red Cedar; and the Iowa, 

Besides "wide-bottomed" Chicaqua, — 

Asipala (or swift Raccoon) 

And many more, with which the Dooa 

And the far-renouned Ayr 

In length nor beauty can compare. 

But for good reason have I passed 

By thee, Des Moines, to name thee last :; 

However distant I may roam, 

I find no place I love like home ; 

And towns and cities I have seen 

Exceeding beautiful, I ween, 

But I prefer my village still. 

Which I behold on yon green hill; 

Her damsels seem to me more fair 

Than those I ever meet elsewhere. 

For some good reason do I love 

More than all others this my grove ;, 

High on yon bending hickory 



46 /OJJ'A. 

The squirrel often speaks to me; 

Here on an evening calm and still 

I hear the lonely whip-poor-will ; 

While frequently I all day long 

Sit listening to continual song, — 

A choir chanting in this wood 

A chorus to the praise of God, 

Who hath sent Winter far away 

And ushered in the vernal May. 

All creatures seem thus to rejoice, 

Without but one discordant voice. 

From beak of little warbling bird 

Hath any person ever heard. 

(Although his locks be white with years) 

"This world is but a vail of tears ?" 

No, no, its little speech is this: — 

"Behold our world, a world of bliss!" 

It is indeed a very shame; 

It is blaspheming God's high name. 

Who built the starry dome above, 

Who filled the universe with love, 

Crowned Beauty as a queen to reign. 

O'er all His glorious domain, 

That any creature can be heard 

To contradict the little bird ! 

Yes, the happy warblers sing 

To welcome in the days of Spring — 

And what a merry, merry lay! 

How it delights my mind to-day 

While on these pleasant banks I stray. 



/OIVA. 47 

Ah, Des Moines, need I now tell. 
Why 'tis I like thy shores so well? 

Once musing on thy banks, O stream, 
I had a memorable dream ! 
A beauteous maid before me stood ; 
She seemed a huntress of the wood ; 
And I beheld her bow unstrung ; 
Her quiver o'er her shoulder hung ; 
I saw not e'en an arrow there ; 
Around it wantoned her long hair; 
Her dress seemed loosely o'er her placed, 
Except 'twas girdled round her waist; 
Nor shoes had she upon her feet ; 
Her eyes so bright knew not deceit ; 
A lovely wreath of flowers hung 
Around her neck; and them she flung, 
With kindly smile, about my own; 
Then meekly on a mossy stone 
She sat her down, but not alone ; — 
It did not seem to wound her pride 
That I should seat me by her side ; 
But now she looks on me in love; 
She seems an angel from above ! 
Ah, now she passes from my view, — 
Glides swiftly in a bark canoe. 
Toward thy northern shores, fair stream ; 
And much I sorrow in my dream ! 
I see thy sparkling waves full plain ; 
She dips her paddle in again; 



48 /OIVA. 

The trees behold the swift canoe, 
And wave to her a kind adieu ; 
The birds now chant a mournful lay, 
That she must pass from them away; 
The woods and prairies grieve full 'sore, 
That they shall see her face no more; — 
Her every movement seems to tell, 
In beauty none can her excel ; 
And what a voice was hers — so clear! 
Methinks its accents now I hear 
While she glides gracefully along, 
Still carroling her farewell song. 



FAREWELL SONG OF PRIMITIVE NATURE. 

The Sun shall continue in his kindly duty 
Through days without number to come, 

Of rising and painting this landscape with beauty,. 
Then gliding with joy to his home. 

And oft will he pass by the twelve constellations 

That encircle the heavens above; 
And Spring shall respond to his kind invitations,. 

And be seen here as oft in her love. 

The beautiful Summer, Autumn fruit-laden, 

And white-bearded Winter severe. 
Will return like a youth at the beck of a maiden, 

Whene'er he shall bid them appear. 



/OJVA. 49 

Sable Night, as if wrapped in a robe of deep 
mourning, 
Will stalk here in sadness and gloom, 
Till the moon shall arise with her silver adorn- 

Like a spirit goes up from the tomb. 

The stars gladly join her with beauty refulgent. 
Like eyes when they sparkle with mirth ; 

Thick- clouds are all banished ; for winds were 
indulgent, — 
Behold now a glorious earth! 

I leave this loved land ; but I go not in sorrow ; 

I bid now adieu to this shore; 
My sister comes after to dwell here to-mor- 
row, — 

Sweet land, shall I see thee no more ? 

The storm-cloud shall rise from the West with 
its thunder 
Deep-echoing terror afar; 
The three-forked lightning shall cleave oaks 
asunder, — 
Dread shaft from a furious star. 

When these plains are uplifted by volcanic fires 
That sleep now in quiet below, 

And pierce the high clouds with the rock-poin- 
ted spires 
Encased in perpetual snow ; 
4 



50 



/OIVA. 



When these ii\cr.s have lied ami arc lost in the 
oee.in ; 
Nov their trace can we Ioniser (.liscern; 
Ami all thinL;s are chaiiL;ed in the niii^hty coiii- 
niolion, 
IW'hold once aL;".iiii 1 return! 

i\s this one \anishcs tVoin sis^ht 
Behold anothei' \-ision briL;ht! 
Another maid approaching;- nic, — 
Ilor-s is the voice of "Libert)." 

A SONH; Ol' ■■llliKKTV." 



N.iture ,ind 1 twin sisters are, 
We lo\e alike the wildeiiiess ; 

iUit still we wandei- oft afar, 

Ami L;i\e to Ait 1ki- niii^htiness. 

' r is I the souls ot men inspire 

With loni^'in^s for inuntut.d fame; 

1 kindle in their breasts the tire; 
1 i\n it to a mountinL;' Hamc. 

Cast but a L;lance at ancient Greece ; 

Whose strength exalted her so hij^h? 
In war the mii^htiest ; in peace 

She seems upliftetl \.o the sk\- ! 

' r was labertN' .^axe her her men; 
llermen created hei' renown; 



/on^.i 5£ 

Hut can I not call up a^ain 

As ijreat as wore the olive crown ? 

Another a^a-, another clime, 

Where Tyranny ne'er drew a breath, 
May yet behold a scene sublime, — 

The mit^hty, as though raised from death. 

Raised freed as from their former clay, — 
DebasinLj p-issions laid aside, — 

Raised to enjoy a full- orbed day, 
And feel a more becoming pride. 

Protected by the one true God 

Whom they with reverence behold; 

They'll walk in paths before untrod, 
Antl darkest mysteries unfold. 

This lovel)' land they'll re-create, — 

Make lulenbloomon earth once ;nore; 

Here, here will build a noble State, 
Greater than Attica of yore. 

Will any lift the ruthless hand ; 

Hy any will that stroke be given, 
Shall drive me from this beauteous land ? — 

1 le drives me back for aye to Heaven ! 

No, lovely being! much I pray 
That none may banish thee away ; 
For well 1 know how man is blest 
Whilst thou continuest his guest. 



52 lOPVA. 

I would, O Libcrt)% that he 

Micrht bow to earth and worship thee;. 

I would thy temples here might rise 

On marble columns to the skies; 

I would have thee adored as one 

Next to Jehovah and his Son. 

Young men and maidens, let us^raise^ 

To her a dail}' hymn of praise! 

Des Moines, upon thy x'crdant shore 

May she continue evermore! 

May never gaze on thee, that thing — 

The curse of human-kind — a king; 

May never look upon thy wave. 

While time shall last, a trembling slave! 

Upon thy northern wave the Sioux 

Is paddling still his birch canoe. 

What lovely prospect meets my view ! — 

The rolling prairies, like a sea 

In vast and wild sublimity, 

There lie with an unbroken sod, 

Untilled but by the hand of God: 

He sows the seeds of grass and flowers ; 

He moistens them with vernal showers. 

But look abroad in summer-time; 

I'm sure in England's foggy clime, 

With all the aid that Art effords, 

With all the efforts of rich lords, 

A garden blooming half so fair 

Never yet has flourished there. 



lOJVA. 53 

Whit are her parks, to one wlio here 
Has chased the bison, elk, and deer, 
O'er pathless plains, and through wild woods, 
And wandered in those solitudes, 
Where could be heard no grating sound 
or mill, nor cattle lowing round, 
Nor crowing cock, nor yelping hound, 
Nor sportman's gun, nor tolling bell. 
The charms of Nature to dispel, — 
Has watched the beaver build like men, 
And killed the wild duck aud marsh hen ; 
Caught wolves and badgers, lynx, raccoon, 
And shot on Spirit Lake the loon ? 
Ah, Spirit Lake! she is to-day 
As beautiful as Lorh-Achray! 
'T is true, the "Minstrel" here can view 
No lofty rocks, no Ben-venue : 
Here Nature doffs her awful charms; — 
Holds out to him her lovely arms, 
I mount on Fancy's wings the air; 
I seek a woody island, where 
Upon a grassy couch reclined. 
Fond recollections throng my mind, 
•Of happy days, when but a child, 
I glided o'er such waters wild. 
And, glad, on every danger smiled. 
The little boat my father guides ; 
My playful hands hang o'er its sides. 
And dabble in the foaming waves. 
That rise like spectres from the graves, — 



54 ^Oli'.l. 

I do not know Ihcir rai;c to fear; 

Their imisic joj-full}' strikes mine car 

'Tis thus 1 yet on life's waves ride, 

By no wild breakers terrified ; 

I let them roll unheeded h)-, 

Nor seem to know tlie dani_;er ni^h, — 

Content antl hope fill up ni\- hreast ; 

And threat what will, I still am blest ! 

I'rotected by a I''ather's care, 

Approach not fear;awa}^ tlespair! 

The rai^int;- winds ha\-e sought their caves, 

Ami now subsideil are llu' w.ixes ; 

Not e'en a rush is seen to shake ; 

So smoothethe surface of the lake, 

I see the fishes at their ])la}'; 

I see tluMu ciuickh' dart away. 

What tlieailful form to them appears, 

That now so mii^htil}- wakes their fears ? — 

A gianl monster nun in l;- slow, 

And di[xs two frightful fins below. 

Thus men take fright ofltimes as threat 

At monstris iheii- own fears create; 

Church-yards b\- nii^ht swarm with i;rim 

_<;hosts, 
l)ark 1 lades has dire t'leiuls 1)\- luvsts. 
And riuto reii;iis supreme o'er all 
That dwell within the horrid wall. 
We now pass riniiul a point iit" Kind 
Where branchini;' cedars thickU' stand; 
Wild berries, plums, aiul i^rapes abound. 



/OIVA. 55 

And luits of inan\' kimis arc foiiiul. 
Hut what a lovcl)' prospect lies 
Outspread before my t^laddened eyes! 
The lake with boats is dottctl o'er 
Frotii )'on small xilla^i- on the shore; 
The fisherman sinks down his seine 
And rows toward that shore a^ain; 
And the light anchors others weit^h 
Who have been angling all the day, 
And homeward turn, because th; sun 
1 lis daily course has well-ni^h run ; 
While each loud sound the padtlles make 
Is borne by I'xho o'er the lake. 
And her sweet voice is plainly heard 
To answer each loud-spoken word. 
l^ut hark ! what tender sound I hear, 
That strikes so mournfully mine ear! 
'T is borne «)n Ze[)hyr's wings from far, — 
The music of a soft guitar. 

ADIl'.U. 

I U)ve my contry's maidens, 

Wherever I may roam ; 
Hut those that are most dear to me 

Ai'c of m\- village home; 

Because I love that village; 

1 love her hills around ; 
\lcy woods and Iut wild prairies; 

Her streamlets' murmuring sound. 



56 IOWA. 

There comes a voice unbidden, 
Nor can I tell thee why, 

Commanding me to love my home, 
That voice is from on high. 

While I have been a stranger, 
Far from that home away. 

There never has unkindness yet 
Beclouded my fair day. 

No maid has e'er despised me, 
Although of high degree ; 

Nor has she ever spurned me 
From her sweet company. 

Must the tear of bitter grief 
Now first be made to start ; 

Must the heaviest stroke be given 
Against my feeling heart, 

By those I prize so highly 
Of my own village home. 

By those I prize more highly far 
Than wealth or ancient Rome? 

But now I am determined, 
Ah ! never more to feel 

Such cruel wound upon my heart, 
Worse than a wound of steel ! 

So, in the happy woods I'll seat 
Me on a mossy stone ; 



lOJVA. 57 

I'll strike upon my sounding harp 
And leave the maids alone ! 

Dame Nature, I shall woo her 

With all my words of love ; 
I'll woo the flowers of the ground 

I'll woo the birds above ; 

I'll woo the gentle sunset ; 

I'll woo the evening breeze, 
While it sings on joyful wings 

Among my forest trees! 

A large and handsome boat I see ; 
It bears a happy company, 
That came to spend a joyful day 
Upon this little cape in play, — 
Gathering fruits, and wreathing flowers; 
Reclining 'neath the shady bowers 
Formed by Nature's sylvan fingers, 
Where, a wood-nymph, still she lingers, 
Plucking warer-lilies fair, 
To adorn her raven hair ; 
Holding in her lovely hand 
A branch of cedar for a wand ; 
Protecting all the living things 
That walk the earth, or fly on wings ; 
Directing the industrious bees 
To take for mansions her tall trees ; 
Painting the wings of butterflies 
With colors like the evenins" skies. 



58 IOWA. 

To-da}', beneath her shades so cool, 
Those of a Christian Sabbath-school 
Sat down and drank of happiness, — 
Drank from the cup of social bliss ; 
But now at c\'enin«^ they forsake 
The grove and sail upon the lake. 
As towards their homes the}- haste along. 
All are joined in sacred song-. 

A 1\SAL1\1 oi- nA\in.* 

Oh, now let us sing to the Lord a new song, 
For marvelous deeds hath I Te tlonc ; 

With Mis holy arm and right hand ever strong 
lie hath the great \ictor}' won. 

B)' lo\'e hath lie conciueretl, saK'ation made 
known. 

And now may the heathen rejoice, — 
To them is His righteousness openly shown ; 

They hear His kintl welcoming voice. 

How well He remembered in mercy and truth 

To smile upon Israel, too; 
The ends of the earth, — all the aged and youth — 

Are led His salvation to view. 

Let all the wide world to Him jo)'fulh' raise 

A noise of thanksgi\ing on high ; 
With the voice of a psalm on the harp, sing His 
praise, — 

Sing praise unto Him who is nigh. 

* IValm xcviii. 



/OJl'A. 59 

With truin[ict.s an<l soiiiul oftlie j^lad cornet make 

A joN'ful noise to our Kin<^; 
Let seas loudly roar, and their creatures awake, 

And the wt^i-ld, and all in it, sin^j^. 

Let Hoods clap their hands; let the [gladsome 
hills smile 

l^ifore Him who batie them have birth; 
He cometh, and they shall behold Him erewhile 

With rii^hteousness judgini;^ the earth! 

But now I leave this lake's wild shore, 
Perhaps to visit it no more. 
Iowa —thirteen years a State, * 
And now appears among the great ! 
Let her proud banner be unfurled 
And borne in triumph round the world ! 
"Oh, 1 have found the beauteous one, — 
The fairest land beneath the sun!" 
Thus strangers, when they first behold 
This land more bright than glittering gold ; 
Thus speak they when their eyes first greet 
Her plains, like boundless fields of wheat; 
When first her dark green forests rise 
Conspicuous before their eyes ; 
When first they see her ri^'ers roll 
Through fields exhaustless of rich coal; 
W^hen first her marble beds appear ; 
When to her lime-stone quarries near ; 
When they her mines of led explore; 

* A<liiuUc(l inti) the Union Dcr. 38, 184ti. 



6o lOPVA. 

When they behold her iron ore 

And copper on the river shore, 

And fire-clay and quartzite sand, 

And gypsum underneath the land. 

Thus is she great in mineral worth ; 

She is the garden of the earth ! 

How very wise in all her laws ! 

How glorius in Freedom's cause ! 

On the Escutcheon give her far 

The broadest stripe, the brightest star! 

Escutcheon of the thirty-three, — 

The coat-of-arms of Liberty, 

And of a noble family! 

Yes, Iowa indeed is fair ; 

Of streams of water has her share ; 

Is rich in minerals, and her soil 

Will bless for aye the plowman's toil. 

Who o'er the prairies looks abroad. 

And does not see the hand of God 

Preparing them through ages past 

To be the homes of men who cast 

The seed abro.id, and reap ngain 

A rich reward in golden grain! 

Who has prophetic ken to tell 

How many million here may dwell; 

What mighty deeds will here be done ; 

What wreaths ol laurel here be won ! 

What men appear whose names shall stand 

An honor to their native land ! 

Satlok's Grove, june, 1?59. 



IOWA. 
PART THIRD. 

(1882.) 



Many cliauyfrs 1\m\(> taken placo since the spring' of 
IS")*,). It is winter now of ISSl-'i. 'IMie nri'-enl needs 
of a lar.ne laniily eonip.'l the author o accept fjfralc- 
t'liily llie liumlile place of teacliei of a lonntry scIuhiI, 
tlii-e«« miles lioni liis rural ealtin home. Hut his path 
lies aloif^ tiie lieautilul Des Moiues. all the way 
Ihroufjh tiiick woods a pleasant path indeed, lie 
has i-eaclicd tlieai^t'td' I'orty-I'onr. perfect in health 
not ha\ iiiii' l>ecn seriously ill even one day in seven 
tetMi Ncars. Wiiynot now write his niasti>r-piece? 
I'^illed with this glorious hope. c(Udi(lent of the ripe- 
ness of his mind, the task is liey-un. and low v. r.\i;r 
riiiKi> is i'on>i)osed by t iu' ant hor whih' journeying', 
nioiuiuii's and eveniuii's to and from his little school. 



IOWA. 



PART 'niiiti>. 



TllKl'^UTURK. 

A MOUNINO'S MKOITATION ON 'I'lIK HANKS OFTIIK 1)108 
MOlNKS. 

"Hill/ I rite to rcdsnn, In; my pldii." -A kionside. 

At forty-lour with heart as young- 
As when a beardless hoy I suii;^, — 
At (orly-lour with hope the same 
And love of honorable fame — 
The same uneonquered mind anti free, 
Ihit chastened by, Adversity — 
() ina\' the path that I have trod 
He hailed the narrow way to (iod ! 
At forty-four I strike anew 
riie hai']) laid down at twenty-two, — 
y\wake the patriotic strain 
To rise into a grand refrain 
Resounding overland and main — 
A I l)'nni of I^'reedom bold and strong 
riie bane of Tyranny and Wrong. 



64 /OJJ'A. 

Th)' \\a\'cs, Dcs IMoiiics, thou liappy Stream, 

Emblem of life of virtue seem, 

Gliding" onvvaixl cla\' anil ui^ht. 

Limpid, joyous, pure and bright. 

The prince of Evil from below 

Cannot retard the onward How 

Of God's great wave that has set m. 

Submerging continents of sin. 

The race of kings, like PharaiVs host 

Beneath that tidal wave is lost, 

And grasping Greed and Awarice drown 

And War And Tox-ert)' go down ; 

But Love, Equality and Peace 

Shall bless for aye the human race. 

True Christianity restored. 

Mammon no longer is adored — 

All in one common brotherhood. 

The good of all the greatest good — 

Self-abnegation is the leaxen 

To metamorphose llellto Heaven. 

Transform this world of selfishness 

Into a Paradise of bliss, 

A Christian communit)' — 

Declaim ag.iinst it Pharisee! 

'Twas Selfishness deprivetl o\ life 

Both Ananias and his wife — 

It is the same to-da}' as then 

(I speak as unto Christian men) 

'Tis Selfishness keeps back a part — 

Why, why conceive it in thy heart 



/(in: I. 6s 

To lie; unto llu- I lol\- (ihost? 
Thus life, O selfish soul, is lost ! 
No life has he who lives for i)elf ; 
No life has he who worships Self — 
liiiinortal life is his who dies 
For other's good a sacrifice — 
While duty is a sacred word, 
While to dishonor death's preferred, 
While countrw home and Hat;" are dear, 
While dims an eye the patriot's tear, 
Thou'lt be remembered, Kinsman. 
Of Iowa's twenty thousand braves 
That rest in honored patriots' i^raves. 
None had a larger heart that thine ; 
While Iowa's glorious sun shall shine 
Thou'lt be remembered, Kinsman. 
And Oh, I see the time quite near 
When Selfishness shall disappear ! 
When each shall li\-e and act as though 
He were unto himself a toe — 
So great his philanthropic zeal, 
So wedded to the Commonweal, 
As Kinsman gave his life, his all, 
Responsive to his country's call. 
So ever has Divinity 
Incarnate in Humanity, 
'Mid scenes of suffering and sin, 
Displayed its heavenly origin. 
The "better nature" will control. 



66 /OIVA. 

In time at hand, the luinian soul, 
The Hon with the lamb shall dwell, 
As old time prophesies foretell. 
The darkest hour (so sages say) 
Is just before the dawn of day ; 
Before the Negroe's shackles fell, 
Gross darkness and the rebel yell ! 
Now intense darkness shades our eyes 
Veiling the planetary skies — 
The few grow rich the many poor 
And tramps are dogged from ever}' door 
The millionaire would have his word 
And e'en his very whisper heard, 
And Congress bow before his nod 
And Presidents cry "Gould is God!" 
It cannot last; it must liot stand; 
No autocrat shall rule this land; 
He would as well attempt to force 
The Mississippi from her course. 
The Freedom that the Fathers sought 
Is pillowed on the common thought 
And rests secure as Warren's fame 
And Washington's immortal name: 
The world will not have long to wait — 
Hear Iowa greet a sister State: 

low A TO C.\LIFOKXI.\ — .A.N ODE OF I 878. 

O'er sovereign States 
The slim\- thing's — 



IOWA. 67 



Huge railroad rinjjs 
And syndicates — 
Reign cruel kings. 
Hail, California! 

Toilers, dethrone 

Those ghouls of greed! 

It is decreed 
That ye alone 

Are kings indeed. 
Hail, California! 

O'er work, well done 
Rejoice O State ; 
Exult elate — 

Swing glad upon 
Thy golden gate ! 
Hail, California! 

They spurn the yoke 
Who plow and plod ; 
They give the nod — 

Thy people spoke 
The voice of God ! 
Hail, California! 

Now cheer on cheer ! 

Green, green's thy tree 

Of Liberty, 
And God is near 



68 Jell A. 

To aid the free ! 
Hail, California ! 

Not long will blindiu'ss hitle from view 
The rights of all and shield the few — 
Not long the people now bctra\'etl 
Will bide the bonded debt uni)aid ; 
While billions from the toilers rung, 
Are to the ravenous usurers flung. 
What agent moves with mightier force 
Than lightning in its downward course? 
Almighty thought divinel}- wrought — 
Invincible immortal thought ! 
The subtilest agent God has given ; 
The grain of mustard seed, the leaven. 
The Kingdom of the Ch list from Heaven. 
Say what you will, talk as you may, 
We seethe dawning of the day — 
The da>^ that sets all labor free 
Establishing Ivqualit}' ; 
For labor now Ifts up her head 
As if awakened from the dead, 
And her edict has gone forth 
Over all the mundane earth : 

TllK EDICT OK [,.\nOK. 

Let the laws no longer say 

"You must work ami he ma\' play" 

What my own hard hands ])roduce 



/OJVA 69 

Shall be sacred to my use; 

The sweat of tliine own face (as said 

In Holy Writ) shall give thee bread, 

But the helpless must be fed; 

The aged and the little ones 

Asking bread must not get stones , 

Ah, never call it "charity," 

The bread that is theirs rightfully — 

Rightfully 'tis theirs to live; 

Rightfully 'tis ours to give 

Millions to support the poor — 

Not a cent for tribute more — 

Tribute to monopoly 

And accursed Usury. 

All the bounteous gifts bestowed 

By the gracious hand of God, 

Gifts like water, land and air, 

All mankind may equal share; 

That which Toil does not create 

Is too all men consecrate : 

No one may mono|)oli7.e 

The manna given fiom the skies; 

All that God in kindness gives 

Belongs to each alike that lives — 

Let the laws no longer say : 

"You must work and he may play." 

Soon the battle will begin 
Gainst the giant powers of Sin; 
See the cause of God succeed ! 



70 lOPVA. 

Righteousness will conquer Greed ; 

Private wealth will be unknown 

In the day that hastens on — 

Private capital no more 

Shall enslave the toling poor; 

All the land will then be tilled 

By the owners of the field ; 

Their own hands will plow and sow; 

Their own hands will reap and mow — 

Soon will perish Tenantry; 

Rent will die with Usury; 

Soon each man a home shall have; 

On his own proud acre live; 

Soon in cities (Sin's retreats) 

Grass will grow upon the streets ; 

Where now millionaires reside 

There will owls securely hide ; 

And the serpent and the toad 

There will find a fit abode. 

No longer will palatial domes 

Look proudly down on humbler homes- 

Every patriot will disdain 

To dwell above the common plane — 

The fijndamental law shall be: 

"Love, Peace and Uniformity. " 

The greatest — the most truly blest — 

Will be the servant of the rest — 

The Godlike man whose noble mind 

Reaches farthest toward his kind — 



IOWA. ■ 71 

The father of the fatherless ; 
The widow's helper in distress. 

Mark the workin^r of the bee, 
Fittest type of Industry, 
How according to fixed plan 
(Learn a lesson here, O man!) 
Does she build her waxen cell, 
And she builds the structure well. 
Now is Nature's lesson taught 
In the works the bee has wrought; 
Thus within the human hive, 
All alike may build and thrive — 
None be rich and none be poor ; 
All partakers of the store — 
Each his part assigned to do ; 
Each to Nature's laws as true — 
Institution will bring forth 
Eden of the Fertile earth — 
Justice will be brought about 
When the drones are driven out. 

Put your hands together, then; 
Think and act, O working men ! 
Think what great Lycurgus did 
For Sparta in an age of blood; 
Remember, too, our patriots dead 
And all they bravely did and said ; 
The glorious charter that they won - 
The deed drawn up by Jefferson 



72 lOlVA. 

Proclaiming" man's equality 
A promise of what was to be — 
WHiat was to be but is not )'et, 
A sun to rise and never set 
When man shall find his highest good 
And cease to shed his brothers' blood 
And build a state that will eclipse 
The promise of the Apocalypse. 
For what the)- nobh' did and said 
Give honor to the patriot dead. 



A HYMN TO THE DEAD. 

We see the dead; we know them — touch their 
hands; 

While they enfold us in their loving arms — 
Obey their v^oices; list to their commands — 

It is their fire our freezing bodies warms — 
'Tis theirs all that we have, whatever stands, 

Endures, is \-alued, benefits or charms. 
The dead bestowed upon us in their lives : 
Lay earth to earth, what is it still survives? 

The good that tlicy have done — this, this is ours : 

It stands eternal and will not fall down — 
15ut name the good they've done — built Babel 
towers ? 
Acquired on fields of blood, the conquerors 
crown ? 



IOWA. 73 

Wrenched states from states and added powers to 
powers ? 
And filled the world with woe and their re- 
nown ? 
Not so, not so — a grander work they did. 
More lastin<4" than the firmest Pyi'^iniid. 

Ah, to the dead we owe all that we have! 

Our institutions and inventions all — 
Without their work none would be living" save 

The acorn-eating savi^ges. The wall 
Betwixt the living and the dead — the grave — 

Hides nothing from us that we would recall — 
The living are afar — the dead are near; 
The living are unseen; the dead appear. 

All that have fallen for their country's sake — 
They stand before us in our glorious laws — 

The saints that graced the scaffold and thb stake 
They live immortal in the people's cause; 

'Tis only by the self-sacrifice we break 

The powers of evil and win God's applause — 

His workers toil and suffer and expire; 

And they alone are bidden: "Come up higher." 



Lo ! future Iowa we see, 
The ripened fruit upon the tree 
Planted by the Deity. 
Mightily the tree has grown 



74 lOlVA. 

In the countless ages gone ; 

Its blossoms — what a grand array 

Have opened in this later day! 

Sure promise of a bounteous store, 

Of luscious fruit foreverniore. 

At Wilson's Creek, Iowa made 

Herself a name that cannot fade; 

And her undaunted bravery won 

To Union flag Fort Donelson 

On Shiloh's mournful field she stood, 

Her garments soaked with her own blood, 

Her bravest sons in hundreds fall 

By shot and shell and mmnie ball; 

At Corinth and luka hear 

From Iowa boys the victor's cheer; 

Port Gibson, Raymond, Champion Hill, 

Black River Bridge, and grander still, 

Above the clouds with Hooker, caught 

Foretaste of glory as they fought ! 

But, oh, the fratricidal strife, 

Where brother seeks a brother's life ! 

Let, let me not be understood 

To claim that war can be a good. 

It is unmitigated sin; 

Nor are they conquerors who win ; 

It is a serpent, (poets write). 

That perishes of its own bite ; 

('T is taught us in the Sacred Word, 

Thy perish thus that take the sword ;) 

Yet men display on fields of war 



lOlVA. 75 

The qualities that in thettiare, — 
Exalted brave r}', fortitude, 
Self-sacrifice for other's good, — 
And in these qualities we see 
Sure promise of what is to be, 
When love shall rule and man be free. 



THE PROMISE. 

In halls where Peace rejoiced, 
Voiced 
By happy swains, 
In sweet refrains. 
And golden strains, 
Bombs burst ! 

In halls, — places of prayer, 

Where, 
Devoutly heard 
Was the Word 
Of the Lord, 

Bombs burst! 

Lo ! "Wars shall be no more!" 

O'er 
Seas of tears. 
Through countless years 
Faith's star appears! 

Bombs burst ! 



ye IOWA. 

Now Love and Progress speak, — 

Shriek : — 
" The time is near 
When human ear 
Shall cease to hear 

Bombs burst ! " 

Peaee would have smiled in '6i, 

Had but the people's will been done; 

Yes, had their voice been fairly heard, 

Rust would have gnawed the hateful sword ; 

But demon Madness ruled the hour 

Begot of Greed and Lust of Power. 

It was the few of shameless cheek, — 

Base robbers of the poor and weak, — 

That they might count their chattel slaves, 

Forced millions to ..-/utiaiely graves. 

The Muse of History will write : — 

*' The ricJi man s war, the poor yuan s figJit !'' 

Be it proclaimed and understood, 

War never seeks the people's good! 

Her baneful name let them abhor ; 

All slavery is a state of war ; 

For tyranny's sustained by force; 

Proclaim it, Wars the giant curse ! 

W'ith soldiery all Europe swarms, — 

Four million sons of toil in arms! 

O sons of toil, unite! unite! 

Throw down your arms, and cease to fight ! 

What helpless and what hopeless things 



lOlVA. yy 

Without you, are the race of kings ! 
But hark! a song of triumph hear, — 
Its joyful accents ring out clear; 
'Tis Labor voices now a cry 
That mounts exultant to the sky. 



A SONG OF LABOR. 

Labor will triumph, boys — no one can doubt it, 
men ; 
We are all brothers, we children of toil — 
We will be slaves no more ; loud let us shout it, 
then; 
But will be freemen, we sons of the soil ! 
All v/ill be joy and peace ; 
Wars and oppressions cease, 
Since we will butcher our brotheivno more — 
Now every wound we stanch ; 
Hold out the olive branch 
To every toiler upon every shore ! 

Labor makes all the guns; Labor must handle 
them ; 
Labor mans all the ships on the high seas ; 
Why do we fight for kings? Why do we dandle 
them 
Like mewling babies upon our rough knees? 
How will the kings and lords 
Manage the euns and swords 



78 IOWA. 

When the hard-handed, the ninety-and-nine 

All of us break our ranks, 

Bowing the kings our thanks 
Shout back : "We, guns, drums and banners 
resign ! 

The world a republic, boys! Grandly united 
men ; 
The millions are guided by love and not hate — 
They dwell in the sunshine of peace all delighted, 
then ; 
No poor and no rich and the meek are the 
great ! 
Brothers and working men, 
Give us your hands again ! 
Now we are happy and ever shall be : — 
On to the Rhine! We say 
Prune now the vine we may ; 
We plant and we dwell 'neath our vine and fig 
tree! 

The land is the people's, boys ! Railroads and 
telegraphs ; — 
Giant Monopoly yields up the ghost ! 
See old king Gold is dead! loudly the toiler 
laughs ! 
Who now by labor will save up the most? 
Dead is king Alcohol 
Poverty, crime and all — 
No use for gibbets for jails or police — 



lOJVA. 79 

Here is fair play, my boys ; 
Shout it and make a noise; 
Labor has triumphed and man is at peace! 

But patriots all be on your guard; 
One kind of devils go out hard — 
And Greed and Tyranny and War 
Among this kind of devils are. 
The framers of our written law 
The danger to our peace foresaw ; 
And early made provision strong 
To guard against the threatened wrong 
Declared in language grandly plain 
That standing armies are our bane. 
They gnaw upon the nation's health ; 
They bite and tear the Commonwealth. 
Despite of all our fathers said 
The serpent raises high its head; 
An army is equipped and paid 
And "soldiering" becomes a trade. 
"Militia" of our fathers' plan 
Counts every able-bodied man; 
The people learned the use of arms 
To guard their families and farms; 
For treacherous Indians blind to law 
Filled peaceful settlements with awe — 
While we've the ballot and the sword 
Whose word is law? The people's word! 
But why have we arrayed to-day 
A host of soldiers under pay ? 



8o JOIVA. 

W'h)' do \vc now so \'iolatc 

The Constitution of our State ? 

When these have power to overawe 

The people then tlie Sword is law! 

The "enemy hath scattered tares" 

Who for pretention makes long prajx-rs- 

But who is he? Hie millionaires ! 

So ravenous for wealth and power 

E'en 'widow's houses they devour." 

These ghouls let all just men contemn 

As scorned by Christ of l^cthlehem ! 

The gnilty lay awake all night 

Quaking with terror and affright; 

Just so these heartless robbers c|uake 

Fearing the people may awake 

To right their wrongs and vengance take: 

Therefore they frame a tyrant law 

To keep the "dangerous class" in awe — 

h'ramctl with a deep anti dark design 

For one to rule the ninety-nine. 

The master formerly was " lash " — 

Who would be master nowy King " Cash !' 

This king now speaks and says : — 

"My will 
Is that the people shall not drill ! 
Place 'Constitution' on the shelf, 
Lest Labor — wronged — protect herself, 
A sleek, select, 'Pnetorian Band' 
Shall be the guardians of the land, 



/OJJ'J, 8i 

To put ilowii strik-cs, and (Iiari^c and kill 

The starvin_L( working; men, at will; 

Because 'tis clear, the laboring mass 

Is now become a 'dan<^erous class,' 

As were the blacks when old John llrown 

At I larper's h'cny won renown, — 

Had these been armed, 'tis plain, the )'oke 

Of slavery at once ihcv'd broke, — 

We must have troops h.eld under pay 

To keep the laborin^^ class at bay. " 

IMain words are thcsc--their n'le.'uiing clear — 

May every freeman liaik and hear! 

Above the people now behold 

A class most insolent and bold : 

See Legislatures, bou'_;ht and sold! 

The railroad magnate spreads his tent 

Right in our halls of government; 

The banking Syndicate a (lod — 

He shakes his locks and gives the nOd — 

From Saratoga thunders forth 

llis mandates to the n.i;n(';;nc cartli — 

The mass asleep; their rights the sport 

Of Congress, President and Court 

So venal as would put to shame 

K'en Arnold of unhappy fmie! 

Why, why asleejj? The cruel strife 

Had almost cpienched the nation's life ; 

And who can woikUm', at its close 

If tired Nature sought repose ? 

Reaction ftjllows action sure 





S2 IOWA. 

In all we do and all endure : 

Now slimy reptiles noiseless creep 

And bleed their victim in his sleep — 

But hark! Who speaks the warning word? 

Oh be the Patriot's warning heard! 

THE patriot's WARNING. 

Beware, beware 
The millionaire ! 
He "all in all," puffed up with pride — 

The Constitution and the laws 
See, see him bound to override 
Making no pause! 

Beware, beware ! 
The millionaire 
^^'ith t}-rant hand struck Freedom down 

In her first home, in her first home ! 
She sank and left but the renown 
Of Greece and Rome ! 

Beware, beware 
The millionaire! 
A deadly foe, a deadly foe 

To thee, O working man, to thee 
Will pause not till he overthrow 
OurLib.M-ty! 

Beware, bev/are 
The millionaire! 
Ah, one b\' one our rights are blown 



lOlVA. S5 

Blown to the wind, blown to the wind — 
Philistines fill the Judges' throne, 
And Samson blind! 

'Tis not the tbrni that we commend 

Of government — but 'tis its end: 

If it be dubbed "democracy" 

And fosters aristocracy 

What is it but black tyranny? 

If't looks to "payments" and to "rents" 

'Tis hatefullest of governments — 

If t seeks to build up happy homes 

Men cry w^ith joy : "The Savior comes ! 

This is the New Jerusalem — 

Our King is Christ of Bethlehem!" 

Who dare invade the hallowed dome 

That holy place, thj humblest home? 

Who desecrate the sacred place ? 

The holiest of holies who deface ? 

Pull down the home — the straw-thatched 

shed 
More sacred than the tombs of the dead ? 
-Of tyranny beware, beware ; 
He has no heart, the millionaire! 

Four million chattel slaves released 
Their cry of agony has ceased — 
It was a struggle that the men 
Who saw it would not see again — 
A victory for Labor won; 
But still the con'lict must go on ; 



84 lOlVA. 

Eternal vigilance will be 

Ever the price of liberty; 

For freedom is not adamant, 

But only a most tender plant 

That must be kept with watchful care 

Lest blight destroy or wintry air. 

Much has been done, much is to do 

Before the promised land we view — 

Every form of cruelty 

Is a form of tyranny — 

End cruelty of every form 

And Tyranny you thus disarm. 

When we have reached the true confine' 

Of freedom we hold man divine; 

Then prisons change their rigid rules • 

And are converted into schools; 

The gallows (that most foul disgrace 

Of nations and the human race) 

Will pass away as has the cross 

And no one ever mourn its loss. 

The aim of human law has been 

To kill the sinner, not the sin; 

He that no sin has ever known 

May at the sinner cast a stone ; 

The ninety-nine upon safe ground 

Seek for the one lost sheep till found 

And when 'tis found gladly restore 

The wanderer to the fold once more — 

John Howard and h^liz"beth Fry 

We hokl in grateful memory — 



lOlVA 85 

The poison of the soul remove 

By surest antidote — by love; 

^Tis love will melt the hardest heart 

And force foul demons to depart — 

Lift up the fallen one — restore 

Her to an upright walk once more; 

The magic power of love is seen — 

Rejoice O Mary Magdalene! 

Ten thousand doors now open wide 

To bring thee to the Saviour's side ; 

Thousands of thousands seek thy good 

The universal sisterhood — 

Mankind a true fraternity, 

Humanity one family, 

Benighted one, abandon thee ! 

No never, while still glows the gem 

Of night, the Star of Bethlehem ; 

No never, while the Sun divine 

Of Righteousness our day shall shine, 

O Son of God and Son of Man! 
No inspiration's higher than 
Thy life! Immortal Energy, 
Invincible as Deity! 
Unfolding lovely leaf and bloom, 
Enshrined in emblematic tomb: — 
The leaf of hope, the bloom of love, 
Graft from the Tree of Life above. 
No written message didst thou pen, 
But emphasized one word to men — 
Thy lite the emphasis; the word 



86 IOWA. 

(Above the written one preferred,) 

The word is "Love," which prophets saw 

Dethrone ('fulfill') the bloody "Law;" 

Now, only thy command remains, 

(It all the written law contains. 

Makes every man on earth our brother,) 

Thy great command, "Lo7'c one another .'" 

Love brethren only, what reward? 

He loves all men who loves the Lord. 

Bright on the banner of our cause. 

Read, ''Love engraven on the laivsf 

The Sermon on the Mount behold. 

In letters brighter far than gold, 

Made, by the people's stern command,. 

The "Constitution" ot the land. 

It must be written in our laws : 

" No slavery ft)r any cause!" 

See convict slaves farmed out to Craig,- 

While their families starve or beg. 

Pay then wages — fair return 

For all they do and all they earn; 

Deprived of liberty — confined — 

They can no lonijer li^rm mankind \. 

Now let us point them to the road 

That leads to righteousness and God,. 

The cause of sin must be assigned 

To wrong ideas in the mind — 

Remove the wrong ideas antl Saul 

At once is transformed into Paul — 

]■ ut Cruelty cannot remove 



IOWA. 87 

The wrong ideas — only Love ! 

A physician for the sick; 

Tender nursing for the weak.. 

Man never falls so low that he 

May not arise to dignity — 

An heir of God; joint heir with Christ 

Who for our sins was sacrificed. 

Where lies the blame for all the crime 

That so disgraces now our time? 

It rests upon society — 

It rests upon community ; 

Community owes ever)^ child 

An education that will build 

Into the edifice designed 

The structure of the heart and mind; 

"As bent the twig the tree's inclined." 

Those slums of poverty and greed 

(The pestilential cities) breed 

Infection in the atmosphere 

That grows more deadly year by year — 

"Street Arabs" never out of sight — 

Goods-boxes shelter them at night — 

Misfortune's "Children in the Wood" 

Dying of cold and want cf food ; 

Oh, gather in the little ones, 

Nor feed them serpents and hard stones>r 

See now the Priest pass by in pride ;, 

The Levite on the other side — 

Who is the tender-hearted man ? 

Who is the good Samaritan ? 



88 JOIVA. 

S;i\' 'tis the State — the Coniinoiiwealth — 
Shall t;ivc tlu'iH food — restore liicir health; 
Shall foUl them in her shelterini;' arms; 
I ler roi)!' pioleet from aiiL^rx' storms ! 
Time hurrn's hy ; these littK- ones 
(irow ii|) to 1)1- her stalwart sons; 
Support hei- when her locks arc liray — 
lier lo\'e with i^ratitiide repa}' ! 

TIk: ( )K1 is (lead! (^dadl_\- we view 
'J'hc rising;' ^lory of the New! 
Now when /one answers to Zone 
1))- telej^raph .iiid telephone 
And the Desert he.irs the scream 
( )rthe moster hi'lchini;- steam, 
It is a I. let all must [)eicci\'e — 
I'erceivinL;" it all must bcliexe: 
'J7/(' iiuthoiis tliat bore fruit of yoxc 
Will blossom in this world no more. 
A ukase Progress has decreed 
I'^'om which mankind caiuiot recede, 
That: 

"In aia^.: wlun Cliuich and State 
Are wide di\'orced and separate. 
The State nuist not attempt to shirk, 
But earry '■n\ the miL;hty work 
The Church so wdrthil)' l)eL;an 
To miti>;ate llu' woes c)f man." 
The "Sisters" — none but thee, _>;ood Lord^ 
Can i;"i\'e them ad^ cpiate reward! 



IOWA. 8g 

The foundling's and the orphan's shield; 
The soldier's bleeding from the field. 

Old means no longer adequate, 
It has devolved upon the State, 
With "Charity" kept out of sight 
To give the helpless "natural right." 
Man's natural rights! With pointed dart 
I'^ngrave it on the hardest heart, 
And every freeman, too, give ear 
And he that is the deafest hear : 
J/ law and justice zvere tJic same, 
Tlicii law could have no other aim 
Than to enforce these rights aud gi^'c 
2 heir benefits to all that live ; 
J\nd when so done, as God designed 
The State becomes "eyes to the blind, 
Feet to the lame"-7-the helpless all 
Upon her as a mother call — 
Are by her fondled and caressed 
As infants nourished at the breast. 
To criminals are given, too, 
The right of reclamation due : 
The State is arbiter of both 
Their mental and their moral growth. 
All pains and penalties have failed 
Since Jesus to the cross was nailed — 
Failed signally. The end designed 
They never reach — the victim's mind; 
i!Vor can the point be put too strong 



go IOWA. 

That pains and penalties are wrong"^ 

Can we by freezing soften wax? 

Or split the ocean with an axe? 

Pains even of the least degree, 

Proclaim existing" T}'ranny ; 

And fines are only robbery : 

A sot before the Court is led 

And fined — his children cry for bread; 

The law can break the drunkard's cup 

And thus can make him give it up — 

Destroy the rattlesnake and then 

'Twill surely never bite again ! 

What devil, Christian England, say, 

Has drugged, with opium, Cathay ? 

Put down the trade! Oh, burning shame !'. 

Out, damned spot upon thy name ! — 

Pile opium in heaps around 

And opium eaters wfll abound ; 

While alcohol in rivers runs, 

Columbia mourns her perished sons I 

O Alcohol ! Thou demon fell 

As ever left the court of Hell ! 

May all the Wrath and Hate and Scorn^ 

That ever were conceived and born, 

Be armed against thy hateful life 

W'ith sharpened speir and poison knife,. 

And may thy cruel heart soon feel 

The vengeful bite of hungry steel ! 

But woman ! W'h :n thy voice is heard 

The fiend will vanish at a word — 



lOlVA. 9K 

It will be heard ! At thy ccmmancl 

See now the demon quit the land ! 

And e'en the army's guns and noise 

Are silenced by thy gentle voice : 

Not in tempest, not in flame, 

Not in earthquake ; but there came 

To Horeb where Elijah stood 

"A still small voice" — the voice of God t. 

But lo ! the sun is risen high 
And shines resplendent in mid sky — 
Thy Post's blessing with thee dwell, 
O lovely Stream ! an J now farewell I 

IIunteVs Ridge Deccm'ter, 18S1. 



LINES. 

God is our only King ; 

Let us in gladness sing - 
Shout on the land and sea 

Union and Liberty! 

We will deal justly, then, 
As becomes noble men ; 

Shout on the land and sea 
Union and Charity. 

God is our only Kmg ; 

Let us His praises sing,- 
Shout on the land and sea 

Union and Victory. 



POEMS 



OF THE PRESENT. 



(1882-3.) 



Wluitever is personal in the following i)ieces is 
;aiuied only at public men, "makers of history" (as 
the assassins of Cavendish and ]5nrke in Ireland, 
styled themselves.) A great master of English song 
has said: "A poet is justilied in writing against a 
particular person when that person becomes a piiblic 
nuisance." Can there be a greater "public nuisance" 
than is the hired assassin of his country's liberty ?— 
than is the venal attorney who for a fee becomes the 
procurator of Satan on earthy bribed to attempt the 
defeat of tlie establishment of Christ's kingdom of 
temperance sobriety, and righteousness amongst menV 

It is customary with many of our American poets 
to go to foreign lands for themes. Two of the follow- 
ing pieces have reference to the war in Egypt; but to- 
day, the world is brought so nearly under one roof 
that wars are no longer of merely loqal interest. The 
themes chosen by the author afford him an opportunity 
of giving expression to his deep abhorrence of war 
and to the contldent hope of a better future for man- 
kind. We are in the dawn of a new era of civiliza- 
tion — the long-promised reign of the "Prince of 
Peace;" and blessed is he (or she) who helps on its 
inauguration; and thrice blessed the poet who shall 
sing acceptably that golden period. His is the song of 
the angels: Peace on Earth; good will to men." 
YV' ith him partizanship is lost in patriotism and secta- 
rianism in the religion of Jesus: "love to God and 
love to man." 



THE OUTLOOK. 

o 

I'ATIT Tin: FIliST. 

THE COMING REFORM. 

OPTIMISJ", PESSIMIST. 

^'The Earth JirUh he gicen to the children of men.' 
— David. 

optimist. 

Good morning, neighbor Pessimist ; why do you 
look so sour? 

■Good news I bring you : soon will end accursed 
kingly power; 

And wars no more will scourge the world; but 
blest Equality 

Will wed the lovely angel Peace; and we shall 
live to see 

God's Kingdom set up in the earth ; the promis- 
ed Shiloh come, 

And Poverty shall disappear. The glad millen- 
nium 

Will rise upon us bright as noon before you are 
aware ; 

Then cast aside your gloom)' looks and trample 
on Despair! 



96 THE OUTLOOK. 

Pessimist. 

The end of kings, kind Optimist, we never shall 
behold ; 

ProQd tyrants bind us now in chains — king Al- 
cohol, king Gold. 

The first is Satan loosed on earth to reign a thou- 
sand years ; 

The beast of the Apocalypse, the second king- 
appears. 

These war against the sons of men; resistless 
is their power; 

The authors of all wretchedness ; the helpless 
they devour — 

No promise yet of better things; the world grows 
worse each year; 

A night of gloom the future shows ; nogleams of 
morn appear ; 

But rather darkness visible — a blackness unde- 
fined 

Obscures the hope of good to man — gross dark- 
ness clouds his mind. 

The people are a race of fools — a flock of owls 
and bats : 

Their wisdom is a sham, how blind, a herd of 
hungry rats ! 

The "piper pipes," the multitude rush madly- 
through the town, 

Till in the the sea they arc engulfed — behold the 
vermin drown ! 



THE OUTLOOK. 97 

A glass of beer will buy their vote ; the states- 
man, for a "pass," 

Will be to Gould or Vandcrbilt a most devoted 
ass. 

A mess of pottage gains the best; their birth-right 
they resign ; 

Thus avarice drives the people mad, as devils 
drove the swine. 

We live to see the end of wars ; see blest Equal- 
ity! 

Behold all Christendom in arms! An aristoc- 
racy 

Has grown here in a score of years, and mush- 
room millionaires 

Now seize the reins of sovereignty. The patriot 
despairs! 

'Tis plausible to look for good ? No; "facts are 
stubborn things," 

Can hope wipe out the race of Knaves and break 
dishonest "rings"? 

God's Kingdom is a crazy dream, yet let him 
dream who will ! 

Such dreams are sweet, gccdCpt:mist : buttruth's 
a bitter pill ! 

Optimist. 

Methinks }-cur mother nourished }-ou, dear Pes- 
simist, on gall ; 
Your bump of hope indeed is weak; your bump 

of faith is small. 

6 



98 THE OUTLOOK. 

From savager)' nianlvind liavc risen; 'twas Pro- 
gress led them forth 

To triumph o\-er matter and to eonquer all the 
earth ; 

The mountains they have leveled down; the hills 
they have brought low, 

The law is : "They shall conquer still, shall van- 
quish every foe." 
The prophet saw the blessed day ; saw blossom 

as the rose 
The desert of the human mind ; and we may well 

suppose 
That he who tames the elemeuts and )'okes them 

to his cars, 
Will tame his savage passions too, and put an 

end to wars. 
The puny tribe ofmillionaires awhile miy buzz 

and sting; 
Ikit, mark me, gloomy Pessimist, the people will 

be king! 
The people are a mammoth strong, resistless 

when they mo\'e, 
And progress is continuous as of the stars above: 
No going back ; l)ut onward stil! — right onward 

in their course ; 
Yea on and on forever and omnipotent their 

force. 
Most subtile are ide.is, friend; though subtile 

they are strong ! 



THE OUTLOOK. 99 

Their fiat is: "Close uj) the gates gainst robbery 

and wrong." 
King Alcohol must die the death ; king Gold 

must bow the knee ; 
The hand that grasps the thunderbolt like Joves, 

will yet be free ! 
Man will be free ! Equality will come to bless 

the Earth, 
And Poverty shall disappear and Erctccm have 

new birth. 

Pessimist 

Did not great Rome succumb to gold ? Corrup- 
tion rang her knell; 

Her toilers robbed by millionaires, she tottered 
and she fell! 

The Gracchi thought to stem the tide; their ef- 
forts were in vain ; 

The tribunes of the people fell ; her patriots were 
slain. 

The "rich man" struck the fatal blow ; accurst 
Monopoly 

Destroyed the mighty Commonwealth and stran- 
gled Liberty. 

The ' ri:h man" knows no law but gr'eed, and 
governments are made 

An engine of oppression cire, to tyranny an aid. 

He robs by law ; the army fights to force the 
poor to yield 



lOO THE OUTLOOK. 

To him tlij substanc: of tluir toil, tlu products: 
of the field, 

Thus Ireland now is overrun with Red-coat sol- 
diery. 

To force the slaves that till the lands again to bow 
the knee. 

When force shall fiil will fraud come in, assas- 
sinations, i^uile : 

The rich will rule; the poor must serve now, on,, 
and all the while; 

There is no hope for him who toils ; relief will 
be denied; 

His choice must lie 'twixt slaver}^ and and death 
b\' suicide. 

OPTIMr?T. 

I cannot say to you, my friend, that }-ou are 

wholly rijght ; 
'Tis gloom}' now I must admit ; but da}- suc- 
ceeds the night. 
The evils that cannot be borne will soon be 

thrown aside. 
And then will rise the better day the prophets 

have descried — 
That brighter day shall surel}- come when labor 

will combine 
And walk- together brothers all, the mighty- 

ninjt}- ninj — 
The one — how feeble is his arm when stalwart 

Labor strikes ; 



THE OUTLOOK. loi 

"The flood pours fortli submerging all since 
broken are the d}'kes — 

The time's at hand when shall arise the flood of 
working men, 

And autocrats shall fly for life and thrones will 
topple then : 

We hear the mutterings of the storm ; the So- 
cial Democrat, 

The Nihilist, Trade's Union, all have issued their 
fiat. 

Upon a higlier plane of love the people take their 
stand ; 

The world is free ! King Gold is dead and La- 
bor owns the land ! 

A bloodless revolution hail ! Green Ireland now 
behold 

Assume her former dignity, her prowess as of 
old! 

Her sons have show^n their native worth; her 

daughters have outdone 
The heroines of history — unfading laurels won; 

The sword no longer will be sought to right the 
toilers' wrongs ; 

For peaceful means more potent are in breaking 
Slaverv's thones. 



PESSIMIST. 

The tollers they are brutal dolts — a pack of 
senseless curs ! 



102 THE OUTLOOK. 

Tobacco is their daily bread; their drink is swill.. 

Yea, worse, 
Their brains are cooked with alcohol ; their bloat- 
ed stomachs burst — 
They belch and vomit lager beer — of God they 

are accurst! 
The people (I must speak the truth) deserve the 

blows they get; 
Omnipotent you say they are, the drunken, brain- 
less set! 
Like sheep they lick the bloody hand that grasps- 

the fatal knife ; 
They bleat for salt — see mutton chops for Dives- 

and his wife ! 
You boast of "progress" in the past; you augur 

progress still ; 
If it be progress, friend, alas! that progress is 

down hill ! 
Our fathers stood like men indeed ; of them we 

justly brag ; 
They fought John Bull; what do we now; Salute 

the Ijritish flag I 
Such is the "progress" we have made; such 

progress soon will bring 
A House of Lords and Monarchy — long live Jay 

Gould, our king ! 
'Tis money rules ! The people fall i)rostrate be- 

ft re the throne ; 
Their bread is gone; the hungry curs now gladly 

tznaw a bone! 



THE OUTLOOK. 105 

OPTIMIST. 

The drunkards are a fecbre folic ; besotted ones 

are few ; 
The multitude are sober, man ! intemperance 

they eschew ; 
Tobacco will be thrown aside, the time is very 

near 
When woman by her gentle voice will end its 

vile career; 
But beer, wine, ale and alcohol will first go by 

the board ; 
Then opium and tobacco she will banish with a 

word. 
So take a happier viewof things, m\' ver\- worthy 

friend ; 
Believe the time is near at hand when wrong 

shall surely end ; 
And let us cherish gentle thoughts and let it be 

our plan 
To build up human happiness and free race of 

man. 
Another day, good Pessimist, we may again re- 
new 
This very friendly dialogue, though now we sa>^ 

adieu. 

May P, 1883, 



THE OUTLOOK. 

o 

PAirr THE second. 
THE TRIUMPH OF MONOPOLY. 

OPTIMIST, PESSIMIST. 

*'7V/e 10 ick eel shall not inhabit the earth." — Solomon. 

OPTIMIST. 

A liapp)' New Year, Pessimist, how glad am I 

to see 
The dawn of this auspicious }-ear eighteen and 

eighty-three! 
This year great changes will be wrought, greater 

than e'er before 
Increasing human happiness and lifting up the 

poor. 
Until Equalit)' shall come to bless on ever\- hand 
And Peace and Love and Brotherhood prevail in 

ever}- land. 

PESSIMIST,. 

Facts, facts, sweet friend, hold fast to facts ; be- 
hold the dire event, 



THE OUTLOOK. 105 

Reaction surely setting in. A "Stalwart" Presi- 
dent 

Arrayed against the common weal ; and (crank- 
iest of cranks) 

He pettifogs for usurers and glorifies the banks ; 

Bewails the prosperous times we have and (shame 
on him !) regrets 

That Uncle Sam so rapidly is paying off his 
debts ]— 

A little while ago we heard : " The Greenback 
(it does say it) 

'United States will pay' so much well then why 
don't she pay it? 

Pay off the Greenbacks," was the cry; "let this 
not be delayed ; 

They draw no interest ; but the bonds, 'tis danger- 
ous if they're paid 

Repudiate? Not so indeed ; the interest promptly 
pay— 

The principal — Oh let that stand until the judg- 
ment day!" 

OPTIMIST. 

Who pleads for this? A patriot true that seeks 

his country's good! 
A happy method of relief (by him so understood) 
The burden of taxation rests too heavil)' just 

now 



io6 THE OUTLOOK. 

On tliose that moil: "who toil antl s[)!n" anci 

those that hold the plow ; 
This will be lifted from their backs; and men of 

every trade 
Will have more time to give to books and resting; 

in the shade — 
This, I opine, explains the wish the President 

expressed ; 
It is to give relief to toil and jo)- to every breast.- 

PESSIMIST. 

Our President — with due respect \ ?pjak the- 

honored word ; 
I give the office reverence due; but t:ulh--let 

that be heard — 
What interest does he seek to serve? the puliHc 

interest? Nay! 
Does he the multitude regard? the general voice 

obey ? 
He is the tool of syndicates — a servile sycophant 
And hireling agjnt of John Bull, likeor'i:: liux- 

ter Grant ; 
The "l:)osses" that he knuckles to, at;iritoga 

meet 
Whjnever k'ndh' Autumn comes ch:: !;v.; the 

Summer's heat ; 
But who are the\' the Lords and Gods v.';o ruler 

our President 



THE OUTLOOK. lo;- 

And who, to-tlay, dcfacto, arc our boasljd "Gov- 
ernment" ? 
Our Congress sits to do their will; it bows before 

their nod ; 
The Khedives c f our sul)ject State kneel down to 

kiss the rod! 
'Tis coward England holds us thus her tributary 

slaves ; 
We scorn her armies ; but her goUl our road to 

bondage paves. 
The "burJen of taxation' dj-e will be removed,. 

alas ! 
Not from the toilers' shoulders; but the greedy 

banking class, 
The agents of the Barings and the Rothchilds 

who enthrall 
This people, they will have their way and pay no. 

tax at all. 
The scheme to " amend the tariff laws" is for this 

purpose set, 
To free the banks from taxes and prolong our 

bonded debt. 
Hark! what a hideous cry we hear of "surplus 

revenue;" 
While still the public debt remains, ho\\' wicked!)- 

untrue! 
But Lombard street's sole master here as well as 

on the Nile, 
And we, enchained by Usury, slaves to the "pd- 

rent isle!" 



io8 THE OUTLOOK. 

Vile Usury! it wrings from us the products of 

our soil 
And holds our farmers bound and gagged like 

Egypt's sons of toil; 
Tlie British Government (the lords, the aristoc- 

rac}^) 
Has now in thrall our working men, rules our 

democracy; 
Draws from us tribute far beyond the tribute she 

obtains 
From all her Orient provinces and Africa in 

chains. 



OPTIMIST. 

You do not mean that we, to-da}', (as Athens 

was of old) 
Are sold by venal demagogues for bribes of for- 
eign gold! 
That here democracy succumbs, betrayed by 

hungry curs, 
•Our liberties all sacrificed to lust of gold; and 

worse, 
The multitude hoodwinked, seduced, bound down 

with iron chains 
Because they lack the eyes to see ; to know they 

lack the brains; 
And England's grown so wise that she outflanks 

jjs in the fight 



THE OUTLOOK. 109 

And, like the wily Woolsey, charges on us in 
the night, 

Surprises us while fast aijleep and drives us from 
our works, 

Then makes us underlings and serfs, like Chris- 
tians are to Turks! 

Who will believe the tale }'ou tell ? Who listen: 
to you croak? 

Your arguments are only bosh ; your fire is only 
smoke ! 



PESSIMIST. 

Truv!, true indeed that Athens fell; fell Freedom's 

grand stronghold 
And e'en Demosthenes himself took Alexander's 

gold; 
The patriot brave whom Philip feared, bore home 

the golden bowl — 
Prostrate her leaders, Athens drooped and I'ree- 

dom lost her soul ! 
How m:iny a brave Demosthenes succumbs to 

bribery here ! 
How many a greedy demagogue grasped Credit 

Mobilier! 
Deca}-ed and rotten are the hearts of our great 

public men — 
How many of the tried prove true? O ;;ay not 

one in ten! 



a 10 THE OUTLOOK. 

One in ton thousand's far be)'ond the truth when 

truth is told ; 
•Our blood bought Jibert}- is lost; bartered for 
British gold! 

All public spirit, too, is dead; the Patriot is un- 
heard — 

The printing press, what is it, sa\-? The grave 
where Truth's interred ; 

And l}'ing " matter" bu\-s its place a hundred 
cents a line ; 

Thus "editorials " "patent sides" for usurers base- 
ly whine! 

The Freedom of the press is lost; for giant Av- 
arice 

Stands over it \\\\\\ club in hand; he rules the 
printing press. 

He rules the courts (the specious plea of "public 

policy" 
•Conceals the bane of Freedom's life, the wolf, 
grim Tyrann)'.) 

MonoDoly is king to-da\-. The hateful " golden 
*calf" 

Guards all the avenues of thought; controls the 
telegraph — 

Controls the bench, controls the church, and 
worse, controls the schools. 

The people thus .ire hoodwinked, mocked, con- 
converted into fools. 

»Our poor men are our patriots; the patriot must 
be poor; 



THE our LOOK. iii 

For all the "powers that be" to-da)', the\' kick 
him from the door — 

The door to preferment and bread, to all employ 
and place, 

And public sentiment applauds \\ hilc thie\'es spit 
in his face! 

The ragged, hungr}-. homeless "tramp" is hated 
like a fiend; 

Train robbers, rogues and miscreants by public 
\oice are screened. 

A\'ho were the "tramps" that wandered forth 
millions in 'y'!^ 

Begging for crumbs from door to door and driv- 
en from State to State? 

Resumption's victims — working men — the plun- 
dered, wronged, wa\-laid. 

By act of Congress pauperized, thrown out of 
work, betrayed ! 

Resumi)tion( ukase of John Bull) a thousand fath- 
oms deep 

Above the lands ot Uncle Sam, his cattle and 
his sheep, 

A sea of mortgages it spread, and ne\'er, never- 
more 

Our farmers and our workingmcn will stand upon 
the shore; 

But buried deep, a prey to "sharks" — devoured 
by British greed — 

A twenty billion mortgage debt, that ne\'er ("tis 
decreed) 



112 THE OUTLOOK. 

Shall be made less in principal, and all our sur- 
plus Lorain 

And poik and beef, cotton and wool shrewd Eng- 
land will obtain 

As interest on our " honest debt" that was upon 
us laid 

By robber legislation, by a "money famine" raid. 

Sorest famines! — born of law — contraction is the 
bane 

Of all prosperity to toil; it empties cvQxy vein 

And artery of the nation's life, and, wanting blood 
and breath, 

Activity is lost to her, her quietude is death ! 

Her factories still, her workers tramps, impover- 
ished, begging bread, 

Now toll the bells; bring out the hearse; Colum- 
bia is dead ! 

The ermined s<-ab her to the heart; the Courts 
o'erthrow our laws, 

The government is crushed betwixt an Alliga- 
tor's jaws ! 

OPTIMIST. 

You ever see the darker side; Despair leads you 

astra\-. 
Do harken to the voice of Mope that shows a 

brighter way! 
These hopeful times! Most glorious times I 

change, change is in the air! 



THE OUTLOOK. 113 

Mark the ;i\\nkcned public sense, awakened ev- 
erywhere ! 

Immortal deeds will soon be done ; the banner is 
unfurled 

That will be borne triumphant!}' around a new- 
saved world ! 

"Progress" inscribed upon its folds in letters large 
and plain; 

This is the day that was foretold for Ciirist to 
come again ! 

His blessed presence is now felt and soon will all 
mankind 

Be close united by his Truth; be brethren of one 
mind. 

How weak, how frail, how impotent are all the 
])Ovvers of Wrong! 

How mighty is the cause of Right; the cause of 

Truth, how strong! 
Can British money-mongers hold the plunging 

comet back ? 
Can half a score of millionaires throw Progress 

from the track ? 

Close all the avenues of thought; shut out the 
light of tlay? 

No, we may speak by telephone and thought 
will find a way 

To penetrate the thickest gloom where Avarice 
holds control 

8 



114 THE OUTLOOK. 

And shine a brilliant meteor in every lumian 
soul ; 

Yea truth will flame this very year a grand elec- 
tric light 
That will abolish from the earth the very name 

of night. 
Ah "no more night" "no need of sun." the hap- 
py day foretold ; 
New light now shines upon the world ; the New 

supplants the Old 
Our bonded debt will soon, be paid; our farms 

will soon be freed 
From mortgages — the mass will rise and strangle 

Giant Greed: 
Columbia cannot be bound down in shackles 

very long ; 
She will arise in all her strength and throttle 

Giant Wrong! 
She speaks — the judges on the bench are wise to 

heed her word ; 
But now you say they would attempt the role of 

George the Third. 
There is but one thing courts may do; they have 

no other choice, 
Their pathway is but this alone : EcJio tJic people s 

voice ! 
Courts make our laws; courts change the text; a 

different meaning place 
Upon the statute thcUi designed ; the genuine coin 

debase ! 



THE OUTLOOK. 115 

The)' might as well attempt to ( himge the Missis- 
sippi's course; 

To make her flow from south to north and speed 
back to her source — 

America will have no King; the people are su- 
preme; 

Their voice will be her law as long as flows that 
giant stream. 

A Happy New Year then to you ; to all on this 
wide earth — 

Oh may this be the happiest )'ear since hailed the 
Saviour's birth 

With gladsome songs the heavenl\- choir — the 
glorious angel bind — 

Now peace to all and bread (aye, more) h'eedom 
to ever)' land ! 

Jan. 14, 1883. 



THE Ol TLOOK. 



J'AKT THE TIIIKI). 

THE lYRANTS OF THE GOWX 

Ol TI M LST, } ESSI M IbT. 

*' Servants have ruled over US. ''^ '^ =>' Thejoy of imr 
heart is ceased ; oxir dance is turned into mowniny^' 
Jkiiemiaii. 

Pessimist. 

Dead, dead and damned! just as I said; the er- 
niined stab our laws; 

The fatal axe has come down hard upon the tem- 
perance cause — 

Yea, "dead and damned" are modest terms to fit 
the woeful fate 

To which their sovereii^nty is brought — the peo- 
ple's once so great ; 

]-5ut now the State is Lawyer Wrong; the peo- 
ple are the sport 

Of railroad kings and whiskey rings that rule 
through him the court ! 



THE OUTLOOK. i r; 

OPTIMIST. 

Tush, tush! Vou niai^aify a mote ; for Wrong" 
his race has run 

'Mongst any dozen barristers there's many a great- 
er one. 

PES.SIMIST. 

Not SO, not so; he now stands forth King of the 

Iowa bar 
And e'en the judges on the bench beside him pig- 
mies are — 
Pigmies forsoooth I he placed them there ; he gav'e 

them W^Q and breath 
And o'er them like a Romai sire holds power of 

life and death. 
Those mewler ; (sucklings) on the bench ^all honor 

to Judge Beck !) 
Must knuckle down to Ex-Judge Wrong (a thief 

would save his neck !) 
Because his power's increased of late, backed by 

the whiske)- rings; 
In caucuses omnipotent ! Almighty! King of 

Kings! 

OPTIMIST. 

Vou certa"nly are mad, my friend; does not the 
eenera' \'oice 



ii8 THE OUTLOOK. 

Secure us judges? Worthy men raised by llic 
common choice 

To honored phicc, they guard our rights; depend- 
ent on our will 

They as our tribunes must be true; our" royal law 
fulfill." 

, PESSIMIST. 

Your theory is fair enough, and, as a theory,, true ; 

But then it melts before the facts ; in practice 'twill 
not do. 

Crude, crude indeed the methods are by which 
the " people" rule; 

The "bosses" are the governnient; show me a 
party tool — 

Show me the king of caucuses ; show me the hid- 
den " wires ' 

By which the part)' puppets dance and I will show 
you liars 

That voice the part\' policy — and "policy" 's the 
word 

That calls together party curs, rall\'s the " com- 
mon herd." 

The people bcw to "policy" and "policy" means 
" wrong," 

That wickedness shall rule the State; the weak 
shall rule the strong; 

The many to the few succumb; manhood succumb 
to wealth 



THE OUTLOOK. 119 

The millions to monopoly — thus fails the public 
health ! 

OPTIMIST. 

Do you assert that leadership (or "hossism," if 

you will) 
Defeats tlie ends of government; stabs at its heart 

to kill? 
Were not the leaders ("bosses") all consulted in 

the flight 
Against the "Beast," King Alcohol, when Wrong 

succumbed to Right? 
Was this great work an accident, and do the party 

Kings 
Combine to quench our Samson's eyes and crop- 

our eagle's wings ? 

PESSIMIST. 

The great result was woman -i work; and, if it 
could have stood, 

Would soon have grown a giant oak o'ei'shadow- 
ing all the wood — 

A "Charter Oak" so grand, ilic woiM, ah, every 
human soul 

Had cried ere long: "Criw ,' \oiee; let wo- 
man e'en control 

The destinies of every land, t;:\c uer liie sovereign 
right 

To speak by ballot, let her \ote and thus dis[)el 
the night — 



ii8 THE OUTLOOK. 

Secure us judges? Worthy men raised by the 
common choice 

To honoredplace, they guard ourrights; depend- 
ent on our will 

They as ourtribunesmust be true; our" royal law 
fulfill." 

^ PESSIMIST. 

Your theory is fair enough, and, as a theory,, true ; 

But then it melts before the facts ; in practice 'twill 
not do. 

Crude, crude indeed the methods are by which 
the " people" rule; 

The "bosses" are the government; show me a 
party tool — 

Show me the king of caucuses ; show me the hid- 
den " wires" 

By which the part)' puppets dance and I will show 
you liars 

That voice the party policy — and "policy" 's the 
word 

That calls together part}' curs, rallys the " com- 
mon herd." 

The people bcw to "policy" and "policy" mcan.s 
" wrong," 

That wickedness shall rule the State; the weak 
shall rule the strong; 

The many to the few succumb; manhood succumb 
to wealth 



THE OUTLOOK. 119 

The millions to monopoly — thus fails the public 
health! 

OPTIMIST. 

Do you assert that leadership (or "bossism," if 

)'ou will) 
Defeats the ends of government; stabs at its heart 

to kill? 
Were not the leaders ("bosses") all consulted in 

the fight 
Against the "Beast," King Alcohol, v/hen Wrong 

succumbed to Right? 
Was this great work an accident, and do the party 

Kings 
Combine to quench our Samson's eyes and crop- 

our eagle's wings ? 

PESSIMIST. 

The great result was woman's work ; and, if it 
could have stood, 

Would soon have grouai a giant oak o'ei-shadow- 
ing all the wood — 

A " Charter Oak" so grand, Vhc world, ah, every 
human soul 

Had cried ere long: "Give her a \oice; let wo- 
man e'en control 

The destinies of every land, g: vc Jier the sovereign 
right 

To speak by ballot, let her \'Otc and thus dispel 
the nieht — 



120 THE OUTLOOK. 

The gloomy, baleful night of crime, of vice, de- 
bauchery — 

'Ring in the reign of Christ on earth,' the true 
Democracy !" 

Tlie law}'er's bull, lo! with his horns has gored 
the farmer's ox ; 

This "woman's movement" must be cjuashed; it 
is not orthodox. 

Suits not the purposes of those who \\\dc behind 
the screen 

And wield the potent party lash and manage the 
" machine" — 

So 'tis o'erthrow n, the woman's work, the tem- 
perance cause is dead ; 

I nail this thesis to the door: " Urom>- k)iockcd 
it oil the JicadT 

He saw that he could kill the maid; the Devil 
whispered "N\ell;" 

He raised his hand; he threw the dart ; the beaute- 
ous damsel fell, 

And now lies prostrate in her blood ; but he that 
did the deed 

Will live to rue the sinful act ; for" soxereign mercy'* 
plead. 

The history of ever)' man is written, not with 
pen; 

But on the living hearts and souls of his poor fel- 
low men ; 

Rather a millstone to his neck and cast into the 
sea 



THE OUTLOOK. 121 

Than add, through lust of gold, one grain to hu- 
man misti'}-. 

OPTIMIST. 

'Tis true that Wrong in politics holds quite a lofty 
seat ; 

His voice is loudest in the throng A\hen state 
conventions meet — 

"I nominate!" — he thundering cries; hisflunkies 
all obe}', 

In every part\ gathering his faction wins the day. 

This is the riddle to be solved : Who is prepared 

to guess, 
Why there's so much springs from his brain, so 

much from nothingness ? 

PESSIMIST. 

Disparagement will not explain the power of this 

strong man ; 
Behind him stand the railroad kings and all the 

^\•hiskey clan. . 
He rules the bench through caucuses; the ghouls 

behind rule him; 
The railroad kings and wiskey rings, they own 

him trunk and limb; 
The immensity of power he wields is all placed 

in his hands 
By those huge bloated monied rings no better 

than brigands. 



122 THE OUTLOOK. 

But, tell me, is it ri'^hteoiisncss in one whose 

trade's the law 
To hide his whole religion and his conscience \\\ 

his maw? 
I say 'tis not! He has no right, though " Doctor 

of the Laws" 
To raise a fratricidal hand against the common 

cause, 
A moral cause so sacred ! Tt is treason born of 

Hell 
Tn him or any citizen against it to rebel! 
And doubly so if he has lived and fattened and 

grown strong 
On the favors of that people, oh it is a cruel 

wrong ! 
Would he by "technicality" defeat their sovereign 

will, 
He should die the death of Judas and then rot on 

some dung hill ! 
Indeed a patriot unschooled in working for a " fee" 
Would gladly give his life, his all, if only he 

could free 
Our l(^\^ely State from slaver\' that demon drink 

entails, 
l^'illing with paupers poor-houses; with criminals 

the jails! 
And had a spark of gratitude beamed in his sor- 
did breast 
He would have said: "Our people speak the 

voice of the Great West, 



THE OUTLOOK. 123. 

They who have made me what I am, exalting mc 

and mine ; 
I'll give my fortune and my life their heart's wish 

to enshrine." 
It was a lovely sight to see in that most glorious 

fight 
The thousands marching to the front upon the 

side of Right, 
Against the powers of Sin and Death; against the 

hosts of Hell ; 
While angels, lauding from the skies, cried : 

" Freemen, ye do well !" 

OPTIMIST. 

If it be true, the word you speak, then all men. 

will agree 
Jeff Davis' crime was not more base or mean (his 

treachery) 
Than that which we behold to-day of him \-ou 

boldly name, 
Who was the people's favorite; but now (alas! 

the shame !) 
Has turned to smite them in the face, used all 

his strength and skill 
To strike them down, destroy ^hcir power and 

trample on their will! 
And he who did this dastard deed will livea with- 
ered man. 



•124 ^^///'' OCT/.OOK. 

A baser act of treachery not since tlie world be- 
gan ! 

PESSIMIST. 

The deed is done, tlie traitor jjaidand temperance 
laws now end ; 

The party that shall hold control will not again 

extend 
The privilege (or. rather, right) to speak their 

sovereign will 

To the " good people of the State;" but it will 

cry : " Be still !'" 
The people will be forced to yield; for " bossism" 

will prevail ; 
Thus every movement for reform will bloom 

awhile and fail. 

OPTIMIST. 

No, no, my friend, though much cast down the 
patriots are not dead ; 

The battle must go on until we crush the ser- 
pent's head; 

l^ut in this great reverse we see the hand of Prov- 
idence 

J*oiating the wiy to sure success through greater 
diligence. 



THE OUT LOOK. 125. 



PESSIMIST. 

What "diligence" can guard the lamb against the 

wolf's deep wiles ? 
To find a pretext for her death he'd trudge a 

thousand miles; 
But pretexts are as numerous as stars are in the 

sky, 
An'^, as the " Amendment" has gone down, so all 

reforms must die. 
The lamb is slain; the surly wolf now gorges on 

his prey ; 
Black Tyranny usurps a crown and Law is driven 

away ! 
The law our patriot fathers gave : "The peoi'lk 

ARE SUPREME !" 

Why if you now e'en name this text the courts 
cry : " You blaspheme !" 

" Red TAPE IS RULER," say the owls; and even 
common sense 

Has been clean stricken from the books and rea- 
son's an offense! 

A crimsoned shame ! Four starvling tramps have 
power to nullify 

The voice of this great Commonwealth — fiat of 
Deity! 

Yea, e'en the destinies of ail now hang on their 
caprice — 



128 THE OUTLOOK. 

The mask's thrown off; witli brazen cheek the 

pubh'c voice they scout ; 
The unwritten Constitution that our fatliers' valor 

won : 
The p?:ople are the So\EREi(iXs," is swept 

awa}^ and gone! 
A backward revolution is the devil that we view, 
Dethronement of the many and enthronement of 

the few ; 
The galling chain of slavery the masses long may 

feel; 
No strength may ever break its links cf toughest 

tempered steel ; 
Where are the mighty people now to trample on 

this deed, 
This hellish action of the court, this "bossisni" 

gone to seed ? 
The "Amendment," it is supreme law, who says 'tis 

not rebels! 
That traitor to the Commonwealth deserves a 

million hells ! 
Our rights are trampled in the mire; but (sadder 

cause of grief) 
The tribimes of the people to the people's voice 

are deaf! 
They veto now our spoken word, usurp the pow- 
er of kings, 
And all to serve Unrighteousness (monopolies and 

rines) — 



THE OUTLOOK. 129 

Behold our "grand palladium," our "shield," our 
" sure defense," 

Has turned a rattlesnake that strikes with fanged 
malevolence! 

Strikes the governor, legislature, and the "sover- 
eigns" in the fac:\ 

Oh freemen! would that yc could teach the loons 
to know their place ! 

OPTIMIST. 

It is a tearful power, I know, tliat now the ermined 
wield: 

But the wrong will soon be righted on the moral 
battle field. 

Believing all is for the best st'Il let us do and dare, 

Re-arm us for the holy war and fight against De- 
spair. 

PESSIMIST. 

You must admit that there are times when free- 
men should speak out 

And not in half a whisper squeak; but boister- 
ously shout ; 

When their sovereignty is spit upon and courts 
transcend their power, 

Is't not the time for action then ? Is't not the 
supreme hour? 

9 



ijo THE OUTLOOK. 

When the balances are broken and Inj ustice mounts 

a throne, 
Becomes the tyrant of the State, then we should 

not postpone 
To raise the cry our fathers did; take their old 

muskets down 
And burnish them anew to fig-ht the Tyrants of the 

Gozvn. 

Jan. 27, 1883. 



THE OUTLOOK. 

o 

PART THE FOUKTH. 

THK TRIUMPH OF WOMAN. 

OPTIMIST. PESSIMIST. 

" Blessed are the meek : for tliey shall inherit the earth'''' 
— Jksus. 

optimist. 

The social evil, half its woes no pen can e'er de- 
pict ; 

I honor thee for thy good work Lovina Benedict ! 

The silent workers, good and true, will bring the 
da\' about 

That we have long been praying for when evil 
shall die out ; 

When man shall rise superior to lust and selfish 
greed 

And woman shall be disenthralled as nature's God 
decreed; 

She walks the earth an angel now, the light of 
every zone ; 

She is the queen of loveliness ; to her is sin un- 
known. 



132 THE OUTLOOK. 

Until by man (her only shield) is confidence be- 
trayed ; 
In him is all the villainy ; on him the sin be laid ! 

PESSIMIST. 

Right here is where your reasoning", O Opti- 
mist's unsound ; 

'Tis man to whom she looks for help to lift her 
from the ground. 

See how Lovina Benedict was pelted with rebuffs 

By the Solon Legislators — how a raft of brainless 
roughs 

(The champions of lager beer, limburger, sauer 
kraut,) 

Cough, wink and nudge each other and then cold- 
ly bow her out! 

The whiskey rings must rule, you know, and "per- 
sonal liberty" 

(The only cry that durst be raised) means gross 
debauchery; 

It means to license dens of shame ; open the gates 
of Death ; 

Therefore whoever cries " reform" will only waste 
his breath. 

OPTIMIS'l'. 

Have courage, brother ! 1 behold the dawn of 

true reform — 
The cause of Moman triumphant: God comes not 

in the storm. 



THE OUTLOOK, 133 

The quiet workers will prevail with woman in the 

van, 
And Mary Darwin live to see, and Martha Calla- 

nan. 
Our daughters honored as our sons; our mothers 

(names revered!) 
And our good wives — bone of our bone — to us 

still more endeared 
By the interest that they shall evince in every glo- 
rious cause, 
Grafting by ballot wisest thought and heart-prayers ■ 

on our laws. 
And this is all that woman asks : Make life' s arena 

broad — 
An ampler field in ivhich to moil, a gleaner for her 

God. 
Oh why should they wear shackles, those proud 

mothers of our sons ; 
Toj them far dearer than to us are home and little 

ones ! 
Haste, haste to place within their reach stout 

weapons of defense ; 
That foe of home then quickly dies, den"ion In- 
temperance ! 
Yea their iaterests they are greater than man's 

selfish interests, far; 
Theirs, clearly theirs (flesh, blood and bone) all 

human creatures are. 
Fond mothers will protect their sons when they 

have power to save ^ 



134 THE OUTLOOK. 

When they can vote, I must believe, all evil finds 

a grave ; — 
Enfranchised woman ! with glad songs the event 

will angels hail — 
War ends forever; "peace on earth, good will to 

men" prevail. 

PESSIMIST. 

O friend, how very different all things appear to 

me ! 
That happy outcome of your dreams this world 

will never see ; 
Black Tyranny and Cruelty, while man exists, re- 
main, 
And Poverty and Woe and Sin and sordid Lust 

of Gain. 
An everlasting conflict fierce rages 'twixt Right 

and Wrong 
Despite the voice of prophets old and later poet's 

song ; 
Despite all theorizing 'tis the great Creator's plan; 
Decay is Nature's finalty and death the doom of 

man ; 
And Sin is ever uppermost and Evil triumphs 

still; 
The universal tendency 's not upward, but down 

hili ; 
Yea, man has been a tyrant, and fond woman 's 

been misused, 



THE OUTLOOK. i35 

(No one will ever question this) and she '11 be still 
abused ; 

Though she stands (in her importance in the uni- 
verse) ahead, 

The primal source of life on earth (as you have 
justly said) ; 

For, man was given the greater strength by Heav- 
en's supreme decree, 

And she must bow submissive lest existence cease 
to be. 

This thesis, friend, you will admit: ''Thestronger 
must prevail." 

OPTIMIST. 

Will mind succumb to matter then, the cause of 

woman fail ? 
Superior in the moral realm, the gods must yield 

to her; 
Wielding the potent wand of love she will be con- 
queror. 
Woman! Call her feeble! there are ripples on 

the deep ; 
Remove old Ocean from his bed : Why, Hercules, 

you sleep! 
Sheasks no'' rights" for selfish ends ; forsee where 

Love commands 
She strikes down "Self"! To shield the weak 

she every ill with.stands. 
The fear of death has no restraint when Love bids 

her to move; 



136 THE OUTLOOK. 

When Memphis felt the fatal plague behold fond 
woman's love! 

She leaps into the jaws of Death, not for the bau- 
ble fame, 

Not as tlie brave " sixhundred" charged, her mo- 
tive not the same. 

What bore her to the scene of woe? Her heart 
that never fails! 

How many sleep in unknown graves, true Florence 
Nightengales! 

Though timid, like the harmless roe when danger 
is afar, 

Cool and collected, undismayed, where Death and 
Danger are ! 

Kate Shelley braves the Storm-fiend's rage, Dark- 
ness, the roaring Flood; 

Does Fear deter ? Love leads her on ; but who 
protects her? God ! 

The social evil must die out when we remove its 
cause ; 

See woman then its cause remove when she dic- 
tates the laws ! 

PESSIMIST. 

But, Optimist, the social sin has always cursed 

our earth ; 
How little 'tis abated even since the Saviour's 

birth !• 
Or since poorMary Magdalene beheld its antidote 



THE OUTLOOK. 13; 

In him, the true Redeemer ! And what now (though 
woman vote) 

Can be done to Hft the fallen from the slums and 
hold them up ? 

Oh I'd rejoice to see removed the poisoned, bit- 
ter cup 

That the millions (darling daughters fondest pa- 
rents doted on) 

Now drink, are lost, " abandoned !" Oh that day 
for them might dawn ! 

Egyptian night enshrouds them. Like the giddy 
butterfly, 

In a blaze of sensuality, behold them flit and die I 

OPTIMIST. 

The answer, Pessimist, is given when you the 

Saviour name ; 
The antidote is love ! 'Twill all the Magdalenes 

reclaim ; 
The love engrafted on our laws that beams from 

woman's soul. 
The love that Christ imparted, 'twill the universe 

control ! 
Will lift the abandoned from the slums. The 

Heaven-sent antidote 
Will be applied to every ill when woman casts her 

vote. 
For drunkards grand asylums, and for the aban- 
doned homes ; 



138 THE OUTLOOK. 

When she prevails we hear the shout : " Behold 

the Master comes ;" 
Yea.this (His second coming) mighty prophets old 

foresaw 
When He shall reign a thousand years and lo\'c 

shall be the law ! 
Not anything that she deems wrong will she (law- 
maker) do; 
And righteousness placed in the laws will curb the 

greedy few — 
Will give the toiling man\' all the products of 

their toil; ' 
Will break the foul monopolies : land, railroad, 

standard oil — 
Remove the cause of social vice ; give all a work ; 

and give 
To all the certain prospect that by labor they shall 

live. 

PESSIMIST. 

You are too sanguine in your hopes, kind Opti- 
mist, by far; 

For woman is as g-reedy as all other creatures are ; 

And she will wink at evil if that evil bring her 
wealth ; 

And she will be as ready quite to overreach by 
stealth ; 

Corruption, too. in politics, will not be less ram- 
pant ; 



THE OUTLOOK^ 139 

Old England has a queen you know, with heart 
of adamant ; 

Beholds the woes of Ireland ; beholds the millions 
die 

Of hunger, robbed, oppressed ; and yet her gra- 
cious eyes arc dry ! 

OPTIMIST. 

Man is the first when evil comes to grasp the sin- 
ful cup; 

When evil dies, say, who is then the last to give 
it up ? 

The wave that drowns King Alcohol drowns the 
tobacco fiend ; 

Who last, I ask, is't he or she that from its pow- 
er is weaned? 

And though you blame the British queen the 
fault rests not with her ; 

For England's sins arraign her lords and her Prime 
Minister. 

Let suffrage be extended in Great Britain ; let all 
men 

(And women too) go to the polls as equals, and 
right then 

A mighty revolution would the world at once be- 
hold. 

And Ireland would rejoice indeed with blessings 
manifold. 



140 THE OUTLOOK. 

When this shall come about, dear friend, in every 
Christian land 

God's kingdom we behold in fact ; the armies all 
disband : 

The world we see united in a sisterhood of states; 

A congress of all nations meet (peaceful confed- 
erates !) 

To settle all disputed points. The sword will nev- 
ermore 

Be drawn from out its scabbard to be stained with 
human gore! 

PESSIMIST, 

When Selfishness has ceased to be, and kings 
are overthrown, 

And when the toiling millions stand together and 
are one. 

We may hope to see the happy time that you an- 
ticipate 

When each shall seek the other's good and all co- 
operate 

To lift the helpless from the dust and care for the 
distressed; 

To give the enfeebled pleasant homes and to the 
toilers rest. 

OPTIxMIST. 

That blessed day is sure to come and now is al- 
most here 



THE OUTLOOK. 141 

When Might shall cease to be the law and none 

will domineer; 
When Righteousness will reign on earth and 

"right" the only end, 
And man will be no longer "lord"; but woman's 

trusted friend ; — 
And it is plain and plausible that cruel, bestial 

Force 
Has in this age of Intellect now nearly run his 

course; 
The weaker are the stronger, and the mighty are 

the weak — 
The world is newly peopled ; its inhabitants the 

meek. 

Feb. 25, 1883, 



ENGLAND AND EGYPT. 



LAWYER JONES, FARMER SMITH. 

And they shall beat their sivords into plowshares and 
their spears into 2^Tuning-?iooJ<s; nation shall not 
lift np sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any /nore."— Isaiah. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Right stormy news to-day, friend Smith, 

We have from Alexandria; 
The Enghsh fleet has opened fire 

Effectively and grandly! 

The British, ever wide awake, 

Hav€ made a demonstration 
That must add glory to their name 

And shekels to the nation. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Jones, since I had my only son 

Slam with a shell at Shiloh 
I feel how terrible are wars — 

They've lost to me their halo. 

What have the men of Egypt done 
To 'stir up such a clangor? 



ENGLAND AND EG YPT. 1 4<l 

It must be some great crime, of course, 
To rouse thus Enefland's anuer? 



LA\V^'ER JONES. 

The crime, as I have heard, is this: 

The Fellah are declaring 
They cannot pay the Khedive's debts 

To Rothschild and to Baring. 

Eight dollars to the acre now 

Is the enormous lev)' 
Of tax they pay upon their lands — 

They claim it is too heavy. 

The Fellah, like the Irish, dare 
To kick against their masters — 

This is the crime that brought them war 
With all its dire disasters. 

The farmers, let them stick to work — 

The war is incidental, 
A mere attempt on England's part 

To help enforce the rental. 

For " honest payment" she declares 

Of bonded obligation ; 
And now she points her (iatling guns 

Against Repudiation. 



144 ENGLAND AND EGYPT. 



FARMER SMITH. 

This howl for "honesty" by wolves 
Is thinly-disguised knavery — 

The most dishonest things on earth 
Are war and human slaver}-. 

The maxim of all men should be 
(Now hear me plainly state it): — 

Whatevcy fetters Liberty 
We should repudiate it ! 

No bond or mortg-^ge can wipe out 

The " higher obligation" 
(" Life, Liberty, and Happiness") 

Writ in our Declaration. 

"All tax" (says English law itself — 
No better law had Sparta) 

" Is but a voluntary gift" — 
Vide old Magna Oiarta ! 

Let Albion proclaim in tones 
That all mankind may hear her, 

And Ireland, India, Africa, 

And Egypt loudly cheer her: — 

" Only a voluntary gift 

(The tax or rent) you may give — 
Old England guarantees your right 

And holds in check the Khedive. 



ENGLAND A ND EG YPT. 145 

" He shall not raise a hand to place 

A yoke upon the many — 
They shall not be constrained to give 

To Idleness a penny." 

But now the shameful fact appears 

That England stands to fetter 
The multitude — the Shylock's " bond" 

Enforces to the letter. 

Is Shylock sweltering in the ranks 
Fighting old England's battles ? 

Oh, no! He snugly stays at Jiom^ 

Who fight? Why, "human chattels !" 

False Albion's boast of many years : 
" No slave can breathe in Britain" — 

But Ireland is a land of slaves 

To England's shame be it written. 

More abject is their slavery 

Than that of Negro chattels ; 
Yet Irish blood and bravery 

Win England's "glorious battles." 

This is the shoe that pinches most: 

That toilers should belabor 
Their toiling brothers and forget 

Their duty to their neighbor. 

The "Royal Irish Regiment"" 
To Egypt now is sailing, 

10 



146 ENGLAND AND EGYPT. 

To forge for her the self-same chains 
That Ireland is bewailing. 

Throw down 70111* guns, Green lu-in's sons! 

Stand by yo"ur toiling brothers ! 
Think of the suffering ones at home — 

Your sisters and your mothers ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Why, Smith, you rave like one insane; 

The English Constitution 
Should be the model for our own. 

Give us a revolution 

That brings a " stronger Government," 

One that will be emphatic. 
To hold the workingmen in check — 

We grow too democratic. 

" Vox popnli, vox Deif' yell 
The ragged, hungry rabble — 

It is more int'resting to hear 
A thousand ganders gabble! 

Tlie British Government is right 

In putting Kgypt under; 
And "No Rent" Ireland, too; will (juail 

l^cforc the I^>nglish thunder; 

For Egypt and old Ireland both 
Deserve the healing plaster 



ENGLAND AND EGYPT, 147 

Of shot, and shell, and minie balls — 
Toilers must have a master! 

FARMER SMITH. 

Friend Jones, your frankness is sublime; 

You bravely tell your story — 
Our fathers, if they'd heard you talk, 

Had shot you for a Tory! 

This Tory smell is in 'die air ; 

Aristocratic stinkers 
(The race of rotten millionaires) 

Now play the role of " thinkers." 

They squeak through every venal press, 
And howl against the "strikers," 

And rave about the " dangerous class," 
Still hounding on their lie curs! 

And many honjst men like you 

Re-echo their palaver, 
You love Brittania so well ? 

I'm willing you shall have her. 

My grandsire fought at Bunker Hill; 

I hate (Darwin explain it!) 
The name of" Lords and Monarchy;" 

Like Milton, I disdain it! 

O Pym, Vane, Hampden, Eliot 
Call, \v!th your ancient summons, 



148 ENGLAND AND EGYPT. 

The traitor Straflbrds of to-day 
Before a patriot Commons ! 

The work those glorious martyr's did, 
True EngHshmen, Oh heed it! 

A bold handwriting's on the wall — 
Aristocrats may read it. 

That writing is to this effect : 

"The days of Lords are numbered !' 
We plant just privilege for all 

Upon the ground they've cumbered — 

The land is for the men that plow, 

The water for the seamen ; 
One class alone upon the earth — 

That class we hail them " freemen.'^ 

All " peoples" shall be joined as one — 

United as one nation ; 
Democracy shall rule the world, 

A great Confederation. 

The guaranty shall be : — No soul 

Shall ever be molested — 
All obligations rest upon 

Friendships disinterested. 

All "legal debts" shall be unknown; 

Known only " debts of honor ;" 
No "interest notes," no mortgages;. 

The State no "bonds" upon her. 



ENGLAND AND EGYPT. 149 

The rule, then, of th^ " Prince of Peace" 

Must end all litigation — 
All grave misunderstandings cease 

In friendly arbitration. 

Old PLngland soon will take the lead 

In this grand revolution; 
Her working-men are now aerreed 

To end all destitution. 

Her lands will be divided up 

In farms of twenty acres; 
The glorious PLnglish-speaking race 

Will be the world's law-makers. 

The shell is now about to break 
(This hope, O toilers, cherish!), 

The New will rise a bright Phcenix, 
The Old will shortly perish! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Well, Farmer Smith, you've made a speech 

(I tell it to your credit). 
More eloquent it could not be 

If e'en a lawyer had said it. 

I'm now convinced it would be well 
(While PvUgland watches strangers). 

It would be well tor Uncle Sam 
To keep an eye on Grangers. 

July 13, 1882. 



CRIMEVS CARNIVAL. 



LAWYER JONES, FARMER SMITH, 

" It is a frequent sight to see 
Higli dangling from a limb 

A ghastly wretch — this thing to me 
is joy — though grief to him." 

—Popular Song of the Period. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Last nijiht we did a noble job: 

Des Moines, transformed into a mob, 

Strung up another murderous fiend — 

Although the Sheriff intervened 

To save the wretch from righteous wrath, 

We followed hot upon his path 

And sent him to his just reward: 

We left him dangling to a cord! 

FARMER SMITH. 

Honor to Sheriff Littleton! 

The love of all true men he won — 

The grand old soldier! schooled to dO' 

His duty! to his country true! 

No truckling, base time-server can 

Appreciate so brave a man ! 



CRIMES CARNIVAL. ict. 

LAWYER JONES. 

What did he then? I'll tell you, sir: 
He stept betwixt the murderer 
And justice that we were about, 
In wholesome sort, to measure out! 
Though my profession is the law, 
And from it I subsistence draw, 
I see the crying need to-day 
Of putting lawlessness away — 
And not by costly, bungling courts 
Where barefaced Bribery resorts, 
Until it has become a shame, 
A judge or jury, e'en to name; 
But by the people in their might 
Dethroning Wrong enthroning Right — 
And I can see no better course 
Than to revive the Lazv of Force. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Jones, now you strike an ugly job; 
Mob will be met by counter mob. 
You overthrow society ; 
You bring in War and Anarchy; 
You sink our country down as low 
As barbarous, mob-cursed Mexico ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

There is a power behind the throne; 
'Tis time the power were felt and known! 



tiR;. 



152 CRIME'S CARNIVAL. 

See lawlessness triumphant here 

In city, country, everywhere! 

See our kind parson's " gentlemen" 

Have closed, as yet, Jiardly one den. 

And drunkenness runs riot still 

In spite of law and people's will ! 

If Elder Lucas would but know, 

There is a way to overthrow 

The lawless fiends whom even Hell 

Would scarcely give a place to dwell. 

They care for countr}-, right and laws 

No more than does a crow that caws — 

With traitorous audacity 

They stab the people's sovereignty; 

They thus haul down the flag — why not 

Just "shoot" the villains " on the spot?" 

Their rotten carcasses should swing, 

And dangle-to a hempen string ! 

The people, in their glorious might, 

En masse, should organize some night. 

Tear down, demolish, overturn. 

Wipe out, obliterate and burn 

Each den where Lawlessness is shown 

To reign defiant on the throne. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Jones, I (like you) regret to see 

So much of vice and misery: 

The star-route steal, and then the farce 



CRIMES CARNIVAL. 153 

(The Dorsey trial) ten times worse ! 
Yet we can but approximate, 
Not wholly reach a perfect State — ; 
Against the tidal- wave of wrong 
There is a counter-current strong — 
The storm of sin is at its worst : 
We see the cloud above us burst — 
Signs are propitious in the air ; 
Now soon the weather will be fair. 

LAWYER JONES. 

What are those signs? I'm surely blind — 
Hugely benighted in my mind ! 
Still you may (or Professor Tice), 
Ward off the dread cyclone of vice, 
That strikes against Ues Moines as fell 
As did the storm-fiend smite Grinnell. 

FARMER SMITH. 

The signs are these: hatred of crime 
That now is horribly sublime — 
There is abroad a sense of right, 
That gives the patriot true delight — 
Behold the prohibition wave 
Insures the vile beer-fiend a grave! 
Impatience, you yourself display 
That lawlessness be done away — 
The people swill — this is the word — 



154 crimp: S CARNIVAL. 

The voice of Mis^ht — sword oftlie Lord — 
The wand of Peace! — The Cv)ninion throng, 
That love the ri^ht and hate the wron<^^ 
They soon will raise their hands on hiL^h, 
Swear for their homes to live and die ; — 
Our couniry ! It shall rise and beam 
Far brighter than our I'\'ithers' dream ; 
No need ofmobsantl brutish h'orcc! 
Ah, Jones, the remedy is worse 
Than the disease. A better plan 
The Son of God and Son of Man 
Mas given to Us : " Do good for ill T 
To sin's wild waves cry, "Peace; be still!" 
Not maudlin sentiment He spoke ; 
Put bi'ead of highest truth He broke. 
Philosophy — the grandest kind — 
Beamed from His God-illumined mind; 
And mankind soon will wake to see 
The depth of II is philanthropy. 

LAWVKK JONES. 

i'riend Smith, your talk is vague and wilcl ; 
Be something definite compiled ! 
Your " healing remedy," forsooth. 
Should strongly smack of pungent truth ; 
Facts, you well know, are stubborn things 
For common men and crowned kings ; 
We facts of vice and murder meet 
Now every day upon the street ; — 



CRIMES CARNIVAL. 155 

The cause is plain ; but what's the cure? 
Not sentimental pills, I'm sure; 
Ropes and revolvers, fire and sword 
Will brinf^ us nearer to the Lord ! 

FARMER SMITH. 

The cause, fi-iend Jones, is not so plain ; — 
How may we social health regain? 
Remove, of vice and crime, the cause, 
Then we shall have no need of laws. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Do I admit it? Yes, I do! 

What you've just said is grandly true ! 

FARMER SMITH. 

O friend, wc should not sleep, till we 
Have felled the poison Upas tree! 
The way to help strike down the cause 
Of sin, is to uphold the laws ; — 
Our noble Sheriff hit tlie plan : 
'^ Stand bythelazvsr — God bless the man! 
And when we find onr laws are lame 
Then let us better statutes frame ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

But Smith, the laws we can't enforce; 



156 CRIME'S CARNIVAL. 

You sec, Dcs Moines grows worse and 

worse — 
See sixty-five saloonists stand 
Defiant of our loud command! 
We can't sujjprcss a tippling hell ; 
Because the " gentlemen" rebel. 
These sixt-five out-flank, you see. 
Twelve hundred — our majority! 
Behold, Tom. Jefferson a fool ! 
Majorities have ceased to rule ; 
Here sixty-five law-breakers gloat. 
Swagger and swear — seize by the throat 
The City Fathers — drive the Mayor, 
As do the butchers drive a steer ! 
They on the altar pile greenbacks 
And lo ! "His Honor" melts like wax! 
The people rule? 'Tis not the case; 
Old Mammon governs in their place! 

KAKMKK SMITH. 

Ah, public sentiment is strong — 

All powerful to throttle wrong; 

This IS enough — raise no rude hand — 

See Mayors cower before her wand^ 

See City Fathers quake with fear — 

See Legislators hark and hear — 

See Congressmen obey her nod ; 

(Her voice, Jones, is the voice of God!) 

And Presidents and Kings succumb 

If she but sternly snap her thumb ! 



CRIMES CARNIVAL. 157 



LAWYER JONES. 

Well Farmer Smith forgive my heat; 
I see my words were indiscreet; — 
The farmer (Hercules) at last 
(This globe upon his shoulders vast) 
Moves forward bearing all along — 
Smith, you were right and I was wrong! 
Your words of wisdom I commend; 
The law, the law's our truest friend — 
In what I spoke there's this great flaw — 
That lawless mobs can upliold law — 
It is not true ! May mob rule cease; 
The people's will enforce, O, Peace ! 

Sept. 23, 1882. 



THE "NEW PARTY." 

o 

LAWYER JONES, EARMEK SMITH. 

Unite or die.'' — Old Continental Motto. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Ah, Farmer Sniitli, I've heard sad news, 

Enough to give us all the blues: 

The court, obedient to the lash 

Of party leaders and to " cash" 

Have knocked the " Amendment" into pi — 

The parties — they deserve to die ! 

FARMER SMrrH. 

The parties ! Let us sa)', friend Jones, 

Tis not the parties ; but the drones 

(Kna\'es that on public plunder thrive 

Aud fatten in the party hive) 

That ever do the " dirty work" — 

They flourish the assassin's dirk 

And stab the Amendment ; not the swarm 

That keep the party bee-hives warm. 

The parties are quite good enough — 

Are made of very best of stuff. 

All parties, Jones, embrace good men ; 



FHE " NEW PARTY. " 1 59 

But swine fed in the party pen 
(Corruption gaunt, with ravenous Greed, 
Begot this home-destroying breed) 
Deserve the mctaphoric knife — 
Take theirs and not the parties' h'fe ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Health nursed the party babes ; Decay 
Embraces them (old hags !) to-day: 
They merit death ten million times 
For thrice ten million horrid crimes! 



FARMER SMITH. 

To o'erthrow parties, build anew, 
Is just the hardest thing to-do — 
Nor you, nor I can pull them down ; 
They perish when the millions frown — 
Disband when they have ceased to bear 
The people's standard high in air. 

LAWYER JONES. 

The people's standard! Why, my friend 
The people's rule is at an end 
Unless they, wrathful, rise and slay 
The rotten parties right away ! 



i6o THE " NEW PARTY:' 



FARMER SMITH. 



If" rotten" they'll disintcs^rate 

And fall apart of their own weiglit; — 

They droop and die if they engage 

To stop the progress of the age ; 

Thus fell the Whigs when Webster spoke 

At Marshfield: " Bind the hateful yoke 

Upon the blacks, () Whigs ! Commend 

The South and stand the Oppressor's friend ! 

Then Whiggery felt the cruel knife — 

And from that wound escaped its life ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Ah 'twas a fearful gash, friend Smith ! 

FARMER SMITH. 

The slave-lord's interest was the pith 
And marrow of the great man's speech ; — 
And, Jones, class interest is the leech 
That saps the life of patriot zeal — 
(Attachment to the Commonweal) 
And though it nerves a sordid few, 

To move the masses 'Twill not do. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Did not the party (that may own 
As father, patriot Jefferson,) 



THE NEW PARTY. i6l 

Attach itself to Slavery's car 
And thus bring on the civil war! 

FARMER SMITH, 

For seventy years the "public weal" 

Was hailed the popular appeal — 

Great Jackson raised his patriot hand; 

*' The Union shall eternal stand! 

Avaunt! treason-inflated ghouls! 

I'll hang ye, nullifying fools! " 

But Jackson died; " bosses" arose, 

The slave-lords' friends, their country's 

foes — 
'Twas then we heard the welkin ring 
The horrid yell : " Cotton is King! " 
And cotton planters held the reins, 
Were "all in all" except the brains: — 
What fools ! to think that their command 
Could be the law of this great land ! 
What fools ! to think one interest small 
Could hold this mighty world in thrall! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Friend Smith, it is the same to-day; 
The whiskey mongers curbed of swiay, 
The mercenary dogs, rebel ; 
They raise the hateful " rebel yell " — 

II 



14&2 THE NEW PARTY. 

And see owl Democrats proclaim 

"Free Whiskey " in the people's name — 

And owl Republicans the same! 

Both Whigs aud Democrats of old 

Sought shelter in the slave-lord's fold — 

(But Douglas — patriot soul and true — 

From partnership with Wrong withdrew) 

Just as to-day all parties beg 

A seat upon a lager-keg! 

And history thus repeats itself; — 

The parties! pile them on the shelf! 

Sell out, sell out "boss" Democrats 1 

O herd of noisy, ravenous rats ! 

Yield all things to the beer-fiend's will — 

Ye masses, bow obedient still ! 

FARMER SMITH. 

See, Progress halts not — looks not back ; 
The party whips now vainly crack ! 
Home slays Saloon ; though ermined cranks 
Succumb to threats of vile beer-tanks — 
The Court a siege-gun; brewers load it; 
They fire it off; alas! explode it ! 
" Boss " Wright stood by to prime the gun — 
His corpse lies stinking in the sun! 

LAWYER JONES, 

Smith, what of last November's vote? 
The whiskey-mongers o'er it gloat — 



THE NEW PARTY. i6j. 

It spoke in thunder tones : " Farewell 
To temperance laws and welcome Hell. "" 

FARMER SMITH. 

Not while Columbia has a soul 
Will whiskey-mongers have control f 
Not while a Christian impulse thrills 
To nerve our patriotic wills ! 
The car of Progress goes not back ; 
But ever forward on the track — 
Yes, onward, forward, though up hill. 
But onward, upward, forward still! 
And Reformation comes to earth 
When man is ripe to hail its birth — 
But, when it comes, it comes to stay 
And "bossism" cannot drive 't away. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Your logic's soundness. Smith, I doubt;^ — 

Who was it counted Tilden out? 

A Reformation was that not — 

A Reformation Hell-begot! 

Corruption of the blackest kind, 

And usurpation deep-designed I 

By which the people were befooled; 

Chicane and bare-faced Bribery ruled — 

And offtce-holding harpies dared 

To trample on the Fl 'g : declared 

The nation's vote a nullity; 

And now the after-birth we see — 



i64 THE NEW PARTY. 

A tyrant Court's hateful decree ! 

FARMER SMITH, 

'Twas Tilden ! I le's the dolt to blame! 
His coward action, whata shame! 
Had he e'en breathed one manly breath ; 
Cried " my just rights or martyr death, 
Stood bravely for the common cause — 
The Constitution and the Laws — 
Had whispered but the faintest word 
Jacksonian — 'twould have been heard ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

But still the Muse of History 
Will write it down : " i^lack Infamy ! " 
Ah, 'tis a blot, a deep disgrace 
That time nor distance can efface — 
A trick of "bossism " and chicane 
Most criminal and most insane ! 

FARMFR SMITH. 

But you admit all that I claim : 

The " rank and file" are not to blame 

For what the leaders madly do ; 

The " parties," then, are good and true ! 

I say the parties, each to each. 

Arc as alike as peach to peach ; 

Hosts, hosts of sheep house in each fold; 



THE NEW PARTY. 165 

Slay, slay the wolves we there behold ! 
The " bosses " (Weaver and Judge Wright) 
Are as alike as white's like white ; — 
While man is man 'twill be as now ; 
The only question asked is ; " How 
May I attain the ends I seek ? " — 
(The words of party knave and sneak)' 
Show him the path to place and power;. 
He'll walk that path before an hour ! 
His "views " are very quick to change — 
See how the Courts knelt to the Grange ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

But now Corruption holds the reins ; 
A cranky Court, devoid of brains. 
Spits squarely in the people s face — 
And we must bow to this disgrace \ 
What was Jeff Davis' crime to this ? 
What e'en the traitor Judas' kiss ? 
Why they were virtues when compared 
To what a brainless Court have dared. 
Smith, 'tis a miracle amends 
Those knaves — makes them the people'^s 
fritnds ! 

FARMER SMITH. 

The secret of success, Jones, lies 
Just in this one word : " Organize." — 
The Eagle hears Reynard's command 



it 6 THE NEW PARTY, 

"When Reynard wields a fiie brand — 
'" Grand Army " — it is listened to — 
E'en Con^jress hears the boys in blue. 
To Courts, the Grangers' speech was terse- 
■''The Dartmouth Ccllei^e case reverse ! " 
The Courts obeyed. Monopoly 
Then bowed its head and bent its knee. 
Whose fault is't now if farmers groan? 
Nobody's fault except their own ! 
The whiskey interest is combined ; 
Monopolies have but one mind — 
All monied " rings " consolidate 
.And march en masse against the State ; 
The Courts are cringing slaves to these ; 
But we may free them if we please ; 
Our willing tribunes they become 
If we but strenly crook a thumb — 
Then Jones whose fault is't if the host 
Of temperance has the victory lost? 

LAWYER JONES. 

Clearly not ours! We spoke aloud ; 
The vote ! — Oh I am grandly proud 
Of its proportions ! We may found 
A splendid party on that ground ! 
The temperance banner now unfurled 
Will wave triumphant o'er the world. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Our Fathers' \oice long time was heard 



THE NEW PARTY. 167 

Shout " Loyalty to George the Third !" 

They organized for legal ends ; 

The bough may break ; but first it bends, 

The loyal " Sons of Liberty " 

Became sworn foes to Royalty — 

Old party ties are hard to break ; 

A last resort when men forsake 

Old party comrads — friends of years 

Companions of their hopes and fears — 

Parties break up like ice in spring ; 

Then " loyal subjects " fight their king. 

But, Jones, the maxim best to know 

When we'd build parties, is, " go slow; " 

Had Greenbackers pursued this course, 

The greenback wave had rolled with foree; 

It might have risen to overflow 

And drown Production's hated foe, 

Monopoly. Its force was lost 

In gathering up a " Weaver Host." 

LAWYER JONES. 

Say, do I understand you now ? 
First organize ; and (you avow,) 
A Warren's or Henry's voice may bring 
Us up in arms against the King ? 

FARMER SMITH. 

A rivulet at first we see. 
The Mississippi finally; 



1 68 , THE NEW PARTY. 

First count the cost, then build the houflc — 
The mountain's progeny's a mouse ; 
Loud (groans accompanied its pains; 
God speaks, but not where Tumult reigns! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Your views, friend Smith, are nobly grand; — 
Here, Granger, here's my warm right hand ! 

Feb, 10, 1883. 



THE TKUCE. 



.LAWYER JONES, FARMER SMITH. 

Cheap money will solve the problem of free trade.-^'" 
Wendell Phillips. 

lawyer jones, 

Glad tidings, Smith ! Our statesmen say- 
There soon will rise a happier day 
When farmers shall receive their dtiey^ — 
How goes the battle, friend, with you ? 
Has not our Kasson made it plain 
That with protection we regain 
A healthful life to Industry 
• And farmers better times shall see ? 
Our Allison has fairly shown 
That Greenbacks must be overthrown 
And bankers must be given the sway 
To bring in the millennial day. 
The bankers' promisory »otes 
Will pay for wheat aud corn and oafes, 
And move the tons of beef and pork, 
Affording farmers ample work ; 
And when our bonded debt is paid 
Secure will bankers' notes be made 



170 THE TRUCE. 

By railroad bonds and watered stocks 

And mortgages on city blocks, 

And " iron-clads " on farms and homes 

(The fruitful source whence interest comes) 

And thus backed up those notes will stand 

The " money of our favored land; " 

And Uncle Sam ('tis understood) « 

Will still delight to make them good; 

^'Receivable for Federal tax" 

Still gladly stamp upon their backs; 

But "lawful money "- (Greenback notes 

That paid our glorious blue coats) 

JHe will put down! No mere fiat; 

Let government endorse " wild cat. " 

FARMER SMITH. 

A farmer, you, and tell the truth ! 
A " cranky " idiot, forsooth, 
A lunatic not fit to live, 
Would still know better than to giva 
Kasson's and Allison's quack pills 
To purge our country of her ills. 
To " help the people " they pretend; 
To serve the millionaries, the end ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Smith, how you rave ; Those men 

doubt 
True patriots) would bring about 



THE TRUCE. 171 

Most prosperous times. Statesmen indeed ; 
They know just what the people need. 
The Greenback (Oh, most dangerous thing!) 
Builds up a governmental ring. 

FARMER SMITH. 

A monstrous "ring " your fears present ; 
The " people are the government" — 
Ring may they be ! Upon my w^ord 
You give to toil a two-edged sword 
When promissory notes you hold 
To be a money good as gold. 
Our government deign to receive 
Bank-notes for taxes ! Jones, believe, 
This precedent will rise and slay 
Old King Monopoly some day. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Your words amaze me ! Let me hear 
You, farmer Smith, make this appear. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Let farmers' notes (backed by good lands 
Like bankers' notes are backed by bonds) 
Be put afloat : the government 
Give them endorsement that is lent 
To Bankers' notes ! " Not to refuse 
The farmers' notes for excise dues. " 



172 THE TRUCE. 

A tax of one per cent be paid , 
(The same that on bank-notes is laid) 
Then bankers' ten per cent is gone 
And Usury has lost the throne ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

'Tis so,, indeed, I must cpnfess ! 

Our Allison will favor this! 

He surely will; a Western man 

Cannot oppose so just a plan; 

Our lands are good security : 

The notes of farmers then will be 

As good as national bank scrip. 

With such " sound currency " the ship 

Of state will ever ride secure; 

Our liberties, for aye, endure. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Well, Jones, I am surprised to see 

You grasp this truth so heartily — 

My prejudice had grown so strong 

'Gainst lawyers, that I thought them wrong 

In everything. But now I own 

Rank prejudice is overthrown. 

Yet, Jones, believe, in this fair land, 

May Free-trade and Protection stand 

Right side by side and hand in hand. 



THE TRUCE. 173 



LAWYER JONES, 



Oh, pshaw ! You raise too big a " boo !" 
This paradox cannot be true — 
Free-trade ! Protection ! — are not these, 
Friend Smith, direct antipodes ? 

FARMER SMTIH. 

Not so ; cheap money will untie 
The knot of your perplexity. 

LAWYER JONES. 

Why, Smith, how is it ? — let me hear ; 
I doubt if you can make this clear. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Let " operatives " associate 

And form a " body-corporate " 

And put afloat their legal " notes." 

The care the government devotes 

To bankers' scrip let it concede 

To these, and lo ! they're cash indeed ! 

This " workmen's scrip " will build up, then. 

Big factories for working men ; 

These factories so built will be 

The government's "security ;" 

But not in factory, not in farm 

The safety ; but the toiler's arm ; 



J 74 THE TRUCE. 

Securest pled<;e to common weal 
Are Labor's plighted hand and seal ! 
Yet all the government need care 
Is to receive its annual share 
Of profits — ^just the one per cent. 
Of interest due the government : 
'Tis all the bankers give to-day ; 
'Tis all the factory hands should pay. 
We reach our highest " duty " when 
We most protect our working-men ; 
Cheap money and protection meet — 
Great Britain cannot then compete 
With Labor here. When Labo«r owns 
The factories, she grinds the bones 
Of Britain's money-lords and brings 
Down from their thrones the factory kings; 
Free be our ports 1 We now defy 
King Gold and King Monopoly ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

I see the point; our working-men 

Receiving all the profits then, 

Our goods torcver undersell 

All foreign goods. We thus expel 

All foreign wares. Our toilers stand 

The monarchs of our happy land ! 

June 4, 1882. 



BROTHEKHOOD. 



LAWYER JONES AND FARMER SMITH, 

^ If ye solute your brethren only ivhat do ye more than 
uiliers ? Do nol even the publicans so T' — Jesus 

LAWYER JONES, 

Well, Farmer Smith, our nation's birth 
We hail to-day, — the Glorious Fourth I 
All men with one united voice, 
Throw up their beavers and rejoice — 
Odd Fellows and Free Masons march : 
The Plumed Kni<;hts, the Royal Arch, 
United are each brotherhood 
In one grand purpose to do good, 

FARMER SMITH, 

"Unchristian " is the fittest term 
To designate each narrow firm, 
United for a selfish end 
Is just their highest recommend — 
True patriots, Jones, 'tis understood,. 
Associate for the general good. 



1/6 BROTHERHOOD. 

LAWYER JONES. 

And, Farmer Smith, g^reat good we see 
The fruit of each fraternity : 
Poor widows in their gratitude. 
And orphans bless each brotherhood. 

FARMER SMITH. 

You would as well reside in Hell 

As in a lodge-cursed town to dwell — 

Not a friend you ever meet ; 

Not a neighbor on the street — 

But an alien you will be 

Unknown in that community — 

Ask a favor, you are spurned ; 

Or like Servetus, you are burned — 

Or " hanged and quartered " if you dare 

To crave a breath of vital air ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

Why Farmer Smith, 'tis indiscreet 
Eor you to talk so on the street ; 
The lodge— the family made large — 
^'To help each other," is the charge. 

FARMER SMITH. 

Those selfish orders in their greed, 
At'V Judaism gone to seed--- 



BROTHERHOOD, 177- 

Their deeps of mystery conceal 
Th; bra'nless, eyeless lamper-eel 
Tint fattens on thi life an i liMllh 
Of the depleted Commonwealth. 
Away with tribes! Give me a State- 
In which all interests congregate ! 
Hence, monkish recluse, to thy cave! 
Hence, selfish "brother," to thy grave? 
Hail Patriot ! Thy life and health 
(Loving thy neighbor as thyself) 
Are wedded to the Commonwealth : 
'As comprehensive thy regard 
As is the love of Christ our Lord. 
How narrow these ! Each clannish "Knight'* 
Is sworn to trample on the right — 
Is sworn with all his strength to cling 
To sordid interests of a "ring"— 
All true philanthropy must fail 
While still the cry is "Saxon," "Gael 1" 

LAWYER JONES. 

These orders were not built to fence- 
Out Love and true Benevolence, 

FARMER SMITH. 

Ah, neighbor Jones, dark shadow they 
(The substance long since passed away)- 
12 



178 BROTHERHOOD. 

Dark shadow of a cruel horde 
That scourged the nations with the sword, 
Out-growth of savagery, turmoil, 
Banditti ravaging for spoil. 
And sworn (with noose on neck) to stand 
True to the "brothers" of their band. 
Few, only few, the clans protect; 
The many suffer their neglect- 
Build up a Christian Brotherhood 
That will the human race include— 
Let not an orphan child be found 
Uncared for on the top of ground ; 
Let not a widow e'er be sent 
To poor-house from her tenement--- 
Provide for them abundantly. 
And not in name of "Charity." 
Vile "Charity"— -a word accurst— 
Of odious words the very worst ! 

LAWYER JONES. 

It will be done! I have no doubt 
The lodge will lielp bring this iibout — 
She educates men to dispense 
Their gifts with true munificence; 
She educates them to bestow 
Their wealth to lighten human woe; 
Teacher of love and righteousness, 
She lifts the helpless from distress. 



BROJIIERHOOD: i-jg 

FARMER SMITH, 

Not so ; the contrary is true : 

While lodges still exist, will you 

Behold the members of those bands 

Ever attempt to tie the hands 

Of "overseers of the poor," 

Begrudging e'en the scanty store 

The law provides, cursing the tax 

As "onerous burden" on their backs, 

The lodge (a state within a State, 

A ''one-horse" body corporate) 

Wheels them along. They soundly sleep 

While orphans starve and widows weep ; 

But could the lodge be done away 

Then every citizen' would pray 

For full provision for the poor. 

For widows, orphans, ample store ; 

Would hail a true fraternity 

Of every soul on land and sea ; • 

I trust that this may shortly be. 

LAWV'ER JONES. 

Perfect the State ! It is decreed 
That clanship dies when dies its need. 

FARMER SMITH. 

What conquerer, neighbor Jones, will reign 
Above those "rintrs" a Charlemagne? 



i8o BROTHERHOOD. 

Who, out ol narrowness, bring forth 
A New Jerusalem on earth ? 

LAWYER JONES. 

The "Gentile" millions when awake, 
Those narrow "Judean rings" will break ;- 
But I perceive that we agree; 
So let us join the jubilee. 

JuiylOth 17 2. 



ALBION'S DISGRACE 



The bodies of Egyptian soldiers were hacked and 
slashed almost out of resemblance to humanity by 
the long broadswords of the English Life Guards. 
One youngj Egyptian otticer' still heldlan unlighted 
cigarette in his stiffened fingers.- -Associated Press 
Dispatch, Aug. Slst, 1882. 

Morals are the basis of politics. Perhaps my step 
will divide my party ; but I cannot abandon my 
principles from any regard for my party or my affec- 
tion for my friends.— /o7in Bright. 

Say, was it worse to slay with^dynamite 

The Russian Czar, or stab with cruel knife 

Lord Cavendish and Burke, than thus to hack 

And slash and hew with murderous great swords 

Beyond resemblance to humanity 

The inoffensive agriculturists, 

That crouch in rooflesss huts along the Nile ? 

Was not the life of that young officer, 

That fell beneath the merciless broadsword, 

Still holding an unlighted cigarette, 

Clutched in his stiffened fingers, worth as much 

As that of Queen Victoria or her son 

Whom she restrained from hastening to the front? 

Then why did she not hold the nation back 



1 82 ALBION'S DISGRACE. 

From this most foul and barberous enterprise? 

Is royal blood too sacred to be spilt? 

Ah, human blood 's too sacred to be spilt ! 

The queen bethou<^ht herself to curb her son ; 

To"ncgative his rage for human gore! 

Indeed! was this the cause of the decree 

Against her scion's arming for the fight ? 

It should have been the cause and motive grand 

A motive worthy of the "Christian Queen" 

That she is styled by those who worship her. 

She should have said: 

" Edward, my royal son. 
Die, if need be, as Jesus died for men; 
I>ive (while thou livest) a good Samaritan ; 
*Bind up tlie wounds of those fallen by the way ; 
And nurse thou e'en the afflicted with Black 

Death, 
Though thy own life be forfeit to the act, 
Yet never wrong of life thy fellow man ; 
Give up thine own to bless humanity. 
But look with horror on aggressive war; 
I"or war is horrible in any guise — 
The greate.'^t evil that afflicts mankind — 
'Tis always wrong, and never, never right! 
Bring joy, my son, to all the auftering poor; 
Forgive the debtor, as tliou 'dst be forgiven; 
Abolish rent as an immoral tax, 
And usury as robbery most foul ; 
Take in thy arms the helpless everywhere — 



ALBION'S DISGRACE. ■ 783 

Like Howard, find the darkest prison hells, 
Open their grates and let God's sunlight in; 
Lift up the lowly and make glad all hearts ; 
Cry : 'Wars, be thou no more !' 'And O, grim 

swords, 
Change thou to plowshares ! spears to pruning 

hooks! 
And Peace, and Love and Brotherhood prevail!" 

The world united as one family, 

Speaking, by telegraph and telephone,. 

Coiigratulations to enfranchised States, 

Saying, "O, India, stand upon thy feet I 

O, Africa, behold thou art a queen ! 

Thy Egypt is the freest of the free. 

After dire bondage of three thousand years. 

To Medes and Persians, Greeks, Romans and 

Turks ! 
Green Ireland, hail! Thy ancient liberties 
Arc guaranteed by P^ngland's gracious voice; 
Behold! again angelic hosts rejoice. 
Loud chanting, 'Peace on Earth, Good Will to 

Men!' 
The constellations clap their hands and sing; 
The sons of God shout peans of great joy !" 

'Tis thus he would have said — the aged chief^ 
0,f whom, great Albion, thou art rightly proud ! 
John Bright ! one glorious act has given to thee 
A seat above all sceptered royalty ; 
Thy grand refusal to record thy name 



1 84 ALBION'S DISC R A CE. 

In favor of the cruel, causeless war 

' Gainst Egypt ! Thou, great Commoner hast 

stcod 
Ever for Peace and Human Brotherhood. 

The hungry vultures of the Christian North 
Swoop down on Islam with unchristian swords — 
St. George's cross, emblem of savagery. 
Displayed from mastheads high o'er the canal, 
Highway to India, through which huge ships 
Pass and repass, freighted with stolen goods 
And guns and bombs, artillery to hold 
The tributary nations still enchained 
Behind the chariot of Nobility, 
To grace the triumph of the "privileged few" 
That flaunt their wealth and trample upon Toil. 
The commons reap no good, no benefit 
From England's wars and savage tyranny. 
What wages do her soldiers get who fight 
And maim and murder for a livelihood ? 
Who slash and hack with merciless broadswords 
•Out of all semblance to humanity 
The youthful patriots of feeble states. 
What wages do her seamen get, who moil 
■On deck and in the rigging, through the heat 
Of tropic suns, or where old Boreas' sleet 
Cuts their rough faces, or the hurricane 
Sweeps by and leaves them clinging to the 

wreck ? 
Her "'Life Guards" force poor farmers to pay 

"rents,;" 



ALBION'S DISGRACE. i8s 

Who grasp the rents as soon as they are paid ? 

The " Lord his God"— British NobiHty ! 

Life guards, forsooth! Vile murderers the name 

That fitly designates her hounds of war, 

Oh, that from cobwebs, men's ideas were cleansed. 

That things of evil might have their true names! 

Then war would be called "hell" (too mild a 

term !) 
And kings called "devils," and nobility, 
(A gentle appellation would be "wolves,") 
Could not exist to ever need a name ! 

September 1. 188-2. ^ 



THE PATRIOT'S CHOICE. 



What party of the free, to-day 

May claim the patriot's warm regard? 

Is there a sun to hght his way? 
Or is he from all light debarred ? 

Is there a compass, star or chart 
That he may trust and safely sail 

To Freedom's happy port and mart, 
And shun the rocks and stem the gale? 

"A good tree cannot choose but bear 
Good fruit " (the Bible plainly says,) 

"The choicest fruit," (hear it declare) 
" Is mark of choicest tree always." 

S© we may take this chart aad guide 
(The staff of age, the shield of youth) 

And cross life's ocean de«p and wide 
And reach the haven of all truth. 

First, what's the tree? Where are the mon 
That raised our ensign from the dust 

Where it was trailed — restored again 
The Union — our immortal trust? 



THE PA TRIO T S CHOICE. i S'7 

H^ve they a voice ? And when they speak 
Is their just mandate kindly heard ? 

The men who fought, (the brave and meek) 
What party hearkens to their word ? 

It has my vote! It is my choice 

To stand with those who hear and heed 

Their hving, patriotic voice, 

Who for the Union dared to bleed. 

The people speak : " Remove the woe. 
The curse that blights the hopes of all \ 

Strikes down our boys !" O patriot know 
What party hearkens to their call ! 

'Twill live while thus it represents 
The progress of this lightning age; 

'Twill live and give us Presidents, 

Though " Stalwarts " bite the dust with 
rage. 

The " Stalwart!" — type of dough-faced crew 
That yielded to the "boss" dema»ids 

Of those who haughtily "withdrew" 
To tear the Flaig with bloody hands. 

" Secession and State Rights !" the word 

To hide their mercenary aims ; 
They, hugging slavery, seized the sworc^; 

The curse died out in blood and flames. 



THE PA TRIOTS CHOICE. 

Old England- -hypocrite and sneak ! 

Reached out her hand to overthrow 
Our righteous government and wreak 

Sweet vengeance on an ancient foe. 

But she was foiled. Again behold 
Her coward form behind our door ! 

Armed cap-a-pie with British gold 
The "Stalwart" is her paramour. 

The wrath of man gives praise to God, 
And out of evil good comes forth; 

Our Fathers felt the tyrant's rod; 
To Freedom, Tyranny gave birth. 

Were not the people wide awake 

To grasp the scoundrels by the throat, 

The whiskey and gold "rings" would break 
The rudder of the party boat! 

When parties swerve from path of right, 
And private interests seize control, 

They fall before the people's might — 
Thus perish every sordid soul ! 

Though war should follow, not a jot 
Will patriots e'er budge from the track ; 

l^emember the slave-holder's lot ! 
Remember the enfranchised black ! 

Next, what's the fruit? Our land redeemed 
From Slavery's black, all-blighting curse ; 



THE PA TRIOTS CHOICE. 1 89 

I 

America, her flag esteemed — 

Who follows now Secession's herse ? 

Honor to Lincohi and to Grant, 
(The veterans that they represent — 

Their fame's engraved on adamant) 
Grant, General not President. 

The end behold, of that dread strife, 
The grandest government on earth \ 

Democracy clothed with new life — 
And Liberty receives new birth ! 

How lenient ! how kindl how just ! 

May freemen now afford to be ! 
The olive branch extend^" distrust "■ 

Write on the ensign of the free. 

Distrust the men who dared to raise 
Rebellious hands against the Flag; 

Distrust the meui who caught the craze 
To cheer the hateful rebel rag. 

Their just demands be quick to heed, 
And be we toward them over kind — 

And them as little children lead, 
Yea, even to their faults be blind. 

Yet, let them never rule the State, 
And never hold the reins of power; 

But let them ask and not dictate, 

Ah, once they ruled, oh dreadful hour I" 



190 THE PA TRIOTS CHOICE. 

The Puritan gave us our laws, 
The Puritan gave us our schools; 

Ours still is Cromwell's "good old cause; " 
Rave as we may, New England rules ! 

She ought to rule ! Her sons stand forth 
The grandest, mightiest men of earth ! 

What is New England now ? The North ! 
Her ideas are our strength and worth ! 

And "Yankee" is a grand old name! 

Yea, 'tis almost a hallowed word, — 
The "Yankee Soldier," — man of fame! 

Too staunch for Jeff, and George the Third! 

This is the fruit: One word will say 
All that a thousand words express — 

The party lasts that will display 

On high the glorious word " Progress." 

"<jro slow!" The mandate of the wise ; 

Go slow ; but on and always sure ; 
Go slow ; be ever on the rise ! 

On, on, up, up, toward heaven's bright 
door. 

The party that sends to the rear 

The dull, reactionary drones. 
The party that will quickly hear 

The voice of Progress and disowns 



THE PA TRIOTS CHOICE. 191 

The knaves — the star- route thugs and 
scamps — 

Brings them to speedy punishment — 
And e'en the gormandizing tramps 

That lead astray our President — 

(To save one leaky ,lager-keg. 

Hark! hear hoarse howls of rage and hate I 
See bloated miscreants tear the Flag 

And Constitution of the State !) 

The party made of timber sound 
(It comprehends a worthier sort 

Of people, that with nerve profound 
Enforce the laws) will hold the fort. 

And to this party soon will haste 
All patriots true of every name ; 

The patriot will with patriots cast 
His lot and shun the tents of shame. 

OctoDerlO, 1882. 



THE COPPERIIEAD. 



''He got hcJiiiid a^ nxmiitdin top 

To hide hiitisc/f J'roin God."— O1.D Song. 

When blood of patriots was shed 
The nation cursed the Copperhead, 
Supposed she left the reptile dead ; 

But is it dead, 

The Copperhead ? 

Our mothers shout, our wives rejoice 

At Iowa's benignant voice : 

But now we hear a hissiuLj noise — 

Hark ! Is it dead, 

The Copperhead? 
A venom still the reptile hath. 
All coiled up in the patriot's path : 
Again we curse it in our wrath ; 

It is not dead, 

The Copperhead ! 

How Iowa waked when Sumpter fell ! 
Recall the horrid rebel yell, 
Our souls with indignation swell I 

Hissed at our dead, 

The Copperhead ! 



THE COPPERHEAD. 195 

Again has Iowa awoke , 

Hurled down Intemperance' demon yoke, 

And quenched hell-fire ! Shall she revoke 

What she has said 

O Copperhead ? 

Why show your fangs in this great hour ? 
Think you to seize the reins of power? 
Think you our glorious flag to lower, 

By beer-bloats led 

Vile Copperhead ? 

Loud was the boast : " Cotton is King !" 
Who would rule now ? The Whiskey ring 
But, mark me, Wrong's a feeble thing, 

A tender thread. 

Foul Copperhead ! 

Above us shines a glorious sun ; 
For Iowa has her duty done, 
A mighty victory she has won, 

Though snakes we dread 

Base Copperhead ! 

We struck down Slavery years ago ; 
To-day we smite a viler foe, 
The author of all human woe, — 
You've made your bed, 
Sleek Copperhead ! 
13 



194 THE COPPERHEAD. 

King Alcohol shall bite the dust 

Smitten by Iowa's disgust. — 

The Copperhead — but squirm it must- 

The devil fed 

The Copperhead ! 

The beast of the Apocalypse 
O'er Iowa would bring eclipse ; 
It kisses with its nauseous lips 

What erst it wed, 

The Copperhead! 

August 18, 1882 



LICENSE WRONG 



Put it strong: 
License wronf; — 
Hoist the sign : 
" Beer and Wine 
Strike men down 
In this town — 
Curse the lives 
Of their wives; 
Make them slaves 
Dig their graves — 
Poison Youth; 
Murder Truth ; 
Fill the air 
With despair — 
Put it strong : 
License Wrong. 

August, 1883. 



AN "AMENDMENT" SONNET. 



'' Tf anyman havl dorcn. the American Flag, sJioot 
him on the spot."— ilKti. foil's A. Di.x, 1H(51. 



These words h;ive|bvirnt tlicir way into my heart! 

The Fla<^ is emblem of rhc people's cause, 

Their righteous wil! expressed in] righteous 
laws, 
l^rave Dix, thou 'dstjuake the accursed traitors 

smart 
That trample on the hMag's i^reat counterpart 

(The Constitution) with their forked i)aws ! 

They belch foul treason from polluted maws^ 
And sell our country in the devil's mart; 
])efy the verdict of the people's votes; 

Define the license " personal liberty" 

To drap^ our children to debauchery 
And the society of bcastial bloats. 
Thy grim war order, Dix, we've not forgot; 

"Who lowers , our ensign, shoot_ him on the 
spDt." 

Sept. 11, 188i. 



TYRANNOUS ENGLAND. 



A nrian named John McMahon, an evicted tea- 
ant, applied to the Board of Guardians for relief, 
when the following facts were elicited : 

Chairman — I believe during the eviction a 
child of yours died. 

Mr. McMahon — Yes, sir, a fine girl eighteen 
years old. 

Mr. O'Brien — Was the agent there ? 

Mr. McMahon — Yes, sir; Mr. Bastablc Hil- 
liad was there. When my poor child heard that 
the Sheriff would come to turn us out of house 
and home, she being, ailing previously, became 
very bad ; and when we were put out, the snow 
falling thick and fast about us, I took the d©or 
off the hinges to shelter her, but the bailiffs pull- 
ed it away. My child died there, with nothing 
to protect her remains frcim the blast, but a little 
^eet. 

Mr. McMahon, in reply to the Board, said that 
he had at present nine children beside his wife 
to support. 
—Report of MEpyrixa of Board of Guardians of 

K ILLARxNEY, IRELAND. 



19S TYRANNOUS ENGLAND. 

I execrate thee, England! Thy tyranny 
(More infamous than that of Muscovite 
Or barba»ous Turk, disgraceful to the age 
That boasts of "progress" and "philanthropy,") 
Must be o'erthrown ! All Christendom shdC 

Hse 
Against thee — not with sword and needle-gun 
And dynamite,fthat thou dclightest to u»e 
Against the^Zulus^— but with withering scorn; 
Thy name.O England, shall be hissed by all — 
Though speech and language are inadequaite 
To meet the horrors of thy cruelty ; 
The Indian's scalping knife and tomahawk 
Are kindness when compared to thy vile "laws"!' 
Yea, Nihilistic anarchy and war. 
Nothing so cruel as thy "government;" 
Nothing so wicked as thy bailiffs are, 
Acting obedient to thy lords' commands, 
Thy boasted commons' and thy pampered 

queen's. 

Sept. )], 1682.^ 



FOEE-WARNED. 



A vftry important case comes up for argfumsnt in- 
the United States Supreme Court October 9th. It in- 
volves the constitutionality of the re-issue of green- 
hacks since the war. — Asseciaied Press Dispatch, 
aept. 2hth, 1883. 

Treason is rife to-day. The " Stalwart" breed 
Have packed the Court with tools of Corporate 

Greed — 
Above the President the ermined crew, 
Above the Congress and the people, too, 
Now sit usurpers — tyrants, rank and vile,. 
Paid tools to enslave us to the British isle. 
The trigger has been set ; the deadfall see 
Prepared to crush the life of Liberty ! 
The court, obedient to the "Stalwart" breed, 
Obedient to the v«ice of British greed, 
Will stab the greenback. It is doomed — and 

lo! 
We shall be plunged in a Hell of woe! 
Columbia, see ker writhe, see Freedom weep !' 
Wake, patriots ! wake from Rip Van Winkle 

sleep ! 
Arise and speak ; make known your sovereign 

will— 



200 FORE- WARNED. 

The dart tint's thrown at you hurl back to 

kHl! 
L-et " hari-kari" be the usurpers' lot 
As wh^n go-vned Tyranny enslaved Dred 

Scott. 

Octolier 3d. 1883. 



A SONNET 

ON THE NULLIFICATION OF "CIVIL RIGHTS" BY THE 
SUPREME TYRANNY 

O Jefferson ! thy prophecy is true ! 

" The Courts zvill ovcrthrcnv our liberty ; 

They zvill become a luxtcful tyranny T 
There is no villainy they dare not do ; 

They re-establish caste, build up the few, 

And re-enslave the millions we set free ; 
They are a scab — a fatal leprosy — 

A loathsome, rotten " cight-to-seven " crew, 

Tyrants "supreme" — they nullify the laws. 
O freemen ! sound the tocsin of alarm ! 

Unfurl the ensign of the common cause ; 

Put down usurpers with thy strong right 
arm; 
Pull out the lion's teeth and dip his claws 

Before he do Columbia fatal harm. 

October 20th, 1883. 



GRANTISM GARKOTED, 



CHICAGO, JUJ^E 2, 3, 4, 1880. 



How the politicians revel ! 
Bribed bulldozers, 
Loathsome leeches — 
Vilest vermin of the devil ! 
Third-term tories : 
Wranglers, 
Janglers, — 
Hear their screeches ! 

John Bull flunkeys. 
Monkeys, 

Braying donkeys — 
Ease be-gotten beasts of Belial,. 
How they rant ! 
Hark the slogan ! 
Conkling, Cameron and Logan 
Howl for Grant! 

The money ling 
By bribery rules — 
Conclave of fools, 
Gold is your King. 



GRANTISM GARROTED. 203, 

O. abject slaves ! 

O, shameless knaves! 
Ye dig to-day your loathsome graves : 

Ye sink so deep, 

When Gabriel blows 
'Twill not disturb your damned repose. 

Your endless sleep ! 

Jane 3, 1«80. 



PASS THE HAT. 



"We gave General Grant two terms of the Presi- 
dency anfl then dropped him to pass the rest erf his 
days in poverty, with no opportunity to make a livingpi 
* * * General Grant turned out to grass as 
his final reward."— Chicago Tribune, JS''oV' 9th, 
1879, 

''A Col osus of ignorance."— CiiA-R'LEs Sumner. 

Ulysses come to want ! 

Pass the hat ! 
A "salary grabber" gaunt! 

Pass the hat! 
Poor Grant " turned out to grass ;" 

Pass the hat ! 
A pitiable ass ! 

Pass the hat ! 
Starved bones led out to die ; 

Pass the hat ! 
Ingratitude, " shoo fly !" 

Pass the hat ! 
A nickel will relieve — 

Pass the hat ! 
Poor starvling I thou shalt live I 

Pass the hat ! 

lyovember, 1879 ' 



EPITAPHS 



ON A SORDID MILLEE. 

Here Me the bones of miller John — 
Body rotted (soul had none) 
He ground and ground and ground the poor;. 
But now. thank God, he grinds no more. 

July 15th, 1877. 

//. 

OJT A MEMBER OF CONGRESS. 

(Engraved with a pencil of chalk on his sarcophagus; 
of basswood.) 

A big blockhead 
Lies here, stone dead — 
Gillette, Gillette- 
Upset, upset. 

August. 1880. 

III. 

ON A POLITICIAN.. 
Drop a tear 
On Wonvcr's'bier; 

He defended the "Amendment" at last^ 
After it passed ; 

And he commended Prohibition 
To perdition. 

Augu&t 3, 1883. 



PKEFATORY 

TO "LINES TO MR. KASSON," 



MY CABIN HOME SEPTEMBER I 5, 1 883 

Dear Mr. Kasson ;— 

I have carefully read your article in tlie North 
American Review of September, 1883, entitled, " Mu- 
nicipal Reform". 

It seems to me that you take a wrong view of the 
matter. The evil is that the people do not govern — 
but designing " bosses " hoodwink and mislead 
the masses, and, prevent also, a fair expres- 
sion of opinion by packing the primaries and "fixing 
things." 

The doctrine of our lathers, as laid down by Jeffer- 
son in tlie Declaration of Independence, is the only 
teue ground of political faith to be occupied by one 
who would be in line with progress. Reaction toward 
autocracy will never be maintained. It is my belief 
that you have departed from tlie faith of the fatl>ers^ 
anft that the sentiments expressed in that article of 
yours will never l)e engrafted in our laws without a 
bloody struggle. I would die a thousand deaths be- 
fore 1 would yield my assent to such principles. 

While personally I desire to see you prosper, I will, 
nevertheless, combat the doctrines of your essay 
while I live, and I shall not scruple to speak with all 
plainness and boldness concerning them and you. 

I understand full well that we have, in our country, 
a class of men anxious to subvert Democracy, and to 
establish, on the ruins of the Repul)lic, an Empire. 
"With your broad culture and deep insight into th e 



LINES TO MR. KASSON. 207 

"hidden purposes" of the rich and powerful, and 
your knowledge hIso of the ways and wants of the 
poor toilers of America— belonging as you do by birth 
to the ranks of the "producing class," I weep that 
you have cho en to be an attorney for the "rich man" 
in the new struggle for tlie rights of laUor that is 
now beginnirg. You have doue well in your youth, 
espousing the cause of the chattel slave — but now 
•oiues the struggle to set free the "wage slave" — 1# 
litt up the toiler out of the mire of degradation into 
which he is sinking deeper and deeper by the fetters 
of Monopoly being fastened upon his wrists, and ank- 
les, so that he cannot raise hand or foot to extricate 
himself. I presume that young men will have to 
come to the front aud lift up the banner of reform. 
We old Abolition workers, it seems, are worn out and 
our vigor exhausted. 

Very Respectfully Yours, 

LEONAKD BROWK. 

I do not believe with Mr. Kasson that the 
" ruinous principle to be expelled from the busi- 
nons management of our cities full of floating 
voters is the rule which gives to a mere majority 
of irresponsible numbers the right- of control, 
over the municipality ;" I do not believe that the 
majority that so cuiurois is a ' con upt moo ;" I 
do not believe that " the people who do not pay 
are always ready to create debt against the peo- 
ple who must pay;" I do not believe it to be "a 
sound principle, which would justify a limitation 
of municipal suffrage to property owners and to 
the payers of taxes ;" that is to say, I do not be- 
lieve that as soon as the few hive succeeded in 
robbing the many of all property the many 



2o8 LINES TO MR. KASSON, 

should cease to have a voice in the government 
of cities — that because a majority of the voters 
of the city oT Boston, for instance, are non-taxf 
payers, therefore a majority of the voters of 
Boston ought to be disfranchised; and I do not 
beheve that "the control of the mere majority of 
irresponsible numbers" is the "breeding nest o^ 
municipal peculation, corruption, waste and ex- 
travagance — the dark cavern of vicious pohtics, 
the lying-in asylum of illegitimate politicians, 
the nursery of corrupt practices." 

The following "Associated Press Dispatch' 
that I chance at this moment to see in a morning 
paper, explains the cause of corruption of city 
governments and shows also the remedy: 

Nashville, Oct. 12, 188?. 
"The annual municipal election to-day, resulted in 
an overwhelming victory for the citizen's reform tick- 
et over the candidates for re-election of the old muni- 
cipal regime. The reform ticket Is composed of blacks 
and Avhites for the first time in the history of the 
city. Tax-payers are jubilant over the defeat of 
"boss" rule of tlie corrupt ward system." 

" Boss" rule is what robs the city treasuries; 
not the rule of the poor laborers, mechanics and 
school-masters — poor whites or poor blacks 
who live by daily toil, not the rule of the people 
who do not pay taxes; for these are cheated out 
of a voice under "boss" rule of the "corrupt 
ward system." Vile "rings" of corrupt politi- 
cians "fixing" primaries govern these "boss"- 



LINES TO MR. KASSON. 209 

robbed cities. This is clearly shown in George 
Walton Greene's " Facts About 'Caucus and 
Primary" in the same number of the North Amer- 
ican Reviezv, in which Mr. Kasson's "Municipa 
Reform" article appears. But the specific reme- 
dy is finally applied at Nashville. An appeal is 
taken to the poor "colored men" for help, and 
for the first time, in the history of that city, are 
these poor people treated with justice and mag- 
nanimity, and their manhood recognized. "The 
tax-payers are jubilant over the result" of uni- 
versal manhood suffrage and fair play for the 
poor despised colored men. 

Manifestly, the only true remedy for the evils 
that afflict all governments — City, State and Na- 
tional, is to extend the elective franchise to all 
adult citizens, male and female, native-born and 
naturalized, white and black, rich and poor, and 
thus make the public interests the business of 
all men and all women, and the chief study of 
the people in the home circle, support an in- 
dependent press devoted to the interests of the 
many and not bound with adamantine chains to 
the chariot wheels of monopoly and jobbery and 
corrupt "rings." There is no "corrupt mob" io 
out-vote the masses, male and female. Let 
these be not deceived and hood-winked and mis- 
led by designing demagogues, and the administra- 
tion of the affairs of City, State and Nation will 
be pure and satisfactory. 



210 LINES TO MR. K AS SON.. 

Mr. Kasson admits that in the most remarka- 
ble case in our annals this pillage of public funds 
was only revealed hy zxi'' independent press -a^n^ 
punished by the slow but firm uprising of an in- 
dignant community r This is a wonderfnl ad- 
mission, pointing out, it appears to me, the only 
possible cure for the disorders Mr. Kasson com- 
plains of afflicting cities, and directing with 
index finger to correct " Municipal Reform" 

J|gr"AN INDEPENDENT PRESS " "FIRM UPRIS- 
ING OF AN INDIGNANT COMMUNITY." The "com- 
munity" need not go so far as to "usurp the duties 
of the regular officers of the law," as it did in the 
case he mentions ; for the "community" is the 
only rightful appointer of "officers of the law." 
Let the "tommunity" control and all is safe. 
Thieving politicians that usurp control through 
*'boss" and "maclijne" management and who are 
not elected by a fan' expression ot the voice of 
the "community" must be put down. Let the peo- 
ple govern and all is well. But politicians elect- 
ed to office by "tax-payers" alone would not ne- 
cessarily be more "honest" than if elected 
by the "irresponsible majority." It does not 
make an official "honest" because elected to 
place by rich men, nor dishonest because elected 
by poor men, and party knaves may deceive the 
rich "few" as easily as they do the poor "many'' 
— "daily personal association lulling suspicion" 
as well in the one case as in the other. Is it true 



LINES 70 MR. K AS SON. 211 

■what Victor Hugo says ? " Imagine everybody 
governing! Can you fancy a city directed by 
the men who built it ? They are the team not the 
coachmen. What a god-send is a rich man who 
takes charge of everything ! Surely he is generous 
to take this trouble for us !" Perhaps there is 
a little spark of irony in this, for Victor Hugo is 
a Democrat. "It is," he says ""the people who 
are on-coming. I tell you it is man who as- 
cends. Ah, this society is false. One day and 
soon the true society will come. Then there 
will be no more lords ; there will be free, living 
men. There will be no more wealth, there will 
be abundance for the poor. There will be no 
more masters, but there will be brothers. They 
that toil shall have. This is the future. No 
more prostration, no more abasement, no more 
ignorance, no more wealth, no more beasts of 
burden, no more courtiers, no more kings — but 
light!" 

Would not Mr. Kasson's logic end in making 
•city governments and all other governments auto- 
cratic — upheld by and upholding a hateful plu- 
tocracy, as two boards on end leaning together, 
uphold each other — and would it not bring 
back "divine right of kings ?" Would there not 
ibe a Dictator at Washington, supported by and 
supporting the plutocrats of New York and Bos- 
ton — agents of London " financiers," the Bar- 
ings and Rothchilds — this Dictator appointing 



212 LINhS TO MR. KASSON. 

•' commissioners" to fjovcrn cities and States, a» 
Washington City and Utah Territory are tyran- 
nized over to-day, — " model governments," ac- 
cording to Mr. Kasson's reasoning, Washington 
City being governed by a board of three " com- 
missioners," appointed by the President — (" Dic- 
tator") — and Utah Territory by a board of five 
"commissioners," appointed by the President — 
("Dictator")! These issue "orders.' — or, in 
other words, make Imvs for City and for Territo- 
ry. This " commission " system is a damnable 
tyranny, and history will so define it. And this 
sort of government is preparing for all American 
States and Cities, and Mr. Kasson's paper enti- 
tled " Municipal Reform" is, it seems to me, a 
finger-board pointing the way to its .speedy in- 
auguration, "Bosses" (corrupt politicians, who 
have been fed at the public crib for a quarter of 
a century, and petted by the people until they 
have come to despise their masters, are evidently 
plotting and planning the overthrow of demo- 
cratic freedom on this continent. It is time the 
patriots (toilers) of our country awaken from 
their slumber of false security, and like Milton's 
"strong man armed," "shake their invincible 
locks." 

Mr. Kasson certainly fails to make clear a dis- 
tinction between City and State governments. 
The State does not " give " the people of a City 
the right of self-government. " All power is in- 



LINES TO MR. KASSON. 213 

herent in the people." The City is a State, and 
the earliest to adopt democratic governments, 
Athens and Rome, for instance. The functions 
of the City legislature are as important to the 
the welfare of the people of a city, rich and poor, 
as arethefunetions oftheState legislature import- 
ant to the welfare of the people of a State, rich and 
poor. The State, I repeat, does not " give " the 
City the right of self-government any more than 
the Federal Government "gives" each State, ad- 
mitted into the Union, the right of self-govern- 
ment. This right is God-given — a " Divine 
right." Democratic government is peculiarly 
well fitted to the wants of cities, and ever pre- 
eminently satisfactory — calling out and develop- 
ing the highest order of manhood. Democra- 
cies alone produce great men. Let our cities 
become more and more democratic; for the "ir- 
responsible majority of numbers," that Mr. Kas- 
son sneers at, will always do the right when they 
know the right. When they do wrong it is when 
they are misled. The poor non-tax-paying vo- 
ters are not robbers. Poor men are ever the 
most ready to give their lives an offering to save 
their country's flag and liberty. 



LINES TO MR. KASSOK 



I. 

O poor man's son ! the rocks and stones and 

mountains of Vermont 
Afforded hard and scanty fare — yea. you have- 
suffered want! 
Fatherless boy ! kind Fortune smiled ; we poor 

men of the West 
Have been to you a tender nurse — have petted" 

and caressed 
Until we spoiled you — made you vain ; and so it 

came to pass 
That you " waxed fat and kicked," dear John,. 

and "spake" like Baalam's ass. 
You would have me, because I'm poor, "dis- 
franchised": Pay big rent — 
Have bonds and gold or (like a dog) no voice ini 

government; 
Like Austria's cities let ours groan ; disfranchise 

all poor men — 
All toilers; none must have a vote except the 

''upper tenr 
Is this the Tory gospel, John, that you've come 

home to preach ? 



LINES TO MR. KASSON. 215 

What have the millionaires, O, John, held out 

within your reach? 
Is this a bid for '84? Do you expect to bring- 
Yourself to be our John the First — our Emper- 
or or King? 
Is this the meaning of your speech ? A bid for 

something grand — 
A bid for Wall Street now to make you tyrant 

of this land ? — 
There is a plot (I know it, John,) deep-laid and- 

black and fell, 
To break up Democratic rule — a plot hatched out 

in hell ; 
But it will fail, and you, dear John, and every 

schemer base. 
Will meet your just reward and doom: discom- 
fiture, disgrace. 
Though peace is sweet and life is dear (I tell you/ 

truth, dear John,) 
Millions will die on battle-fields that Freedom 

may live on, 
Ere we, the poorest, lose our vote. 'Tis all we 

have to give 
Us hold upon a breath of air — the privilege to* 

live. 
Our " one ewe lamb" is dear to us (the labor of 

our hands), 
Dear as the fruits of other's toil, to LombardI 

Street brigands. 



2i6 LINES TO MR. K ASS ON. 

II. 

The strong right arm of Labor wields the saber 

in the figlit ; 
The strong right arm of Labor will defend the 

toiler's right : 
The strong right arm of Labor (let the rich man 

bear in mind) 
Is the only ark of safety — more than "riches" 

to mankind ; 
It is Labor th '.t builds cities ; Labor that pro- 
tects the home; 
But the enemy of Labor stabbed the Gracchi of 

old Rome ! 
That enemy — the "rich man" — is determined to 

o,erthrow 
To-day the friends of Labor as he stabbed them 

long ago ! 
3ut the day-star has arisen, and the night of 

gloom is past, 
And now we cry " Eureka," for the morning 

dawns at last ! 
''I have found it! I have found it!" Labor now 

exulting cries ; 
^'I behold the promised morning; I behold the 

sun arise ! 
We are many ! we are mighty ! and the feeble 

' Man of Sin' 
^e is fallen! He is fallen! and Christ's reign 

js ushered in, 



LINES TO MR. KASSON. 217 

Who has promised that the greatest shall be ser- 
vant of the least, 

And the poor he has invited to be present at the 
feast, 

And sweet Peace shall wed with Plenty and 
Equality shall bless 

The millions of all nations with the boon of hap- 
piness." 

•October nth, 1883, 



OLD MEMOEIES. 



Bead [at the " Old Settlers' " Annual Picnic on the 

State Talr Grounds, near Des Moines, Iowa, 

August 16, 1883. 



Well neighbors old, the day has come 

Dear friends again to see; 
Long since we left our "Hosier" home. 

Or "Buckeye" (as't may be) — 

Or "Wolverine" or "Yankee," too; 

" Corn-cracker, " " Tuckey-hoe," 
Or "Sucker" — bade warm hearts adieu 

Oh, long, long years ago ! 

The oppressed came flocking o'er the sea 
Whence our forefathers fled — 

From England, Ireland, Germany 
In myriads they sped — 

"Entered" this lovely prairie land 

For better (not for worse) ; 
Now let us grasp each friendly hand 

While old "yarns" we rehearse. 



OLD MEMORIES. 

But neighbors old, how few remain 

Of first associates ; 
Their forms our memories retain : — 

My heart anticipates 

A grand reunion soon, too soon ; 

You see we have grown old ; 
We've passed life's morn; we've past its 
noon — 

The bell has often tolled ! 

Fewer and fewer meet each year 

To talk of days gone by — 
Fewer and fewer shall appear ; 

Our last hand-shake draws nigh. 

But why, why talk in this sad strain ? 

Here is no funeral, friends ; 
We are too happy to complain, 

And bright our day descends. 

The evening has no clouds at all 

To early pioneers ; 
We're ready when the Lord shall call 

To join our old compeers. 

Now bring the teeming baskets forth i 

To-day, with happy voice, 
Within this "Garden of the Earth" 

We sing and we rejoice, 



OLD MEMORIES. 

Remembering still the good old ways — 

Recalling early scenes — 
Privations of the trying days 

Of hominy and greens. 

Oh, may the children still pursue 
The path their fathers trod ; 

<Dh, may they ever live as true 
To Friendship and to God ! 



A SONNET 

TO WILLIAM VAN DORN, MY DEAR DErARTED FRIENDi 



To thee, not as unto the dead, I speak, 

But as unto the Hving. Art thou dead? 

Have life and friendship ceased with thee ? In- 
stead 
They are intensified ! I do net seek 
Thee distant ; but I feel thy presence near. 

O, Friend ! 'tis but a day — a winter day — 

And I'll have done my Earth-task, passed away, 
And joined thee in that higher, happier sphere ! 
Me groundlings do not understand. Thou did'st 

And lovedst me as one worthy thy regard. 
Here, in this dreary atmosphere, amidst 

The virulent and gross, my lot is hard — 
Maltreated, waylaid, mobbed by Envy's brood — 

Oh, may I bear my wrongs with fortitude ! 

November 10, 1883. 



STANZAS 

TO THE MEMORY OF HON, ROBT. W. STUBBS» 



"Polk City. Iowa, Jan. 23, 1882,— We always feel 
better when trying to do good than at any other time, 
so let us ever be found trying to do all the good we 
can."'— i?. W. Stubbs. (Writeen in his wife's Auto- 
graph Album. 

Heartrending scene ! Wife, little ones 

Left suddenly to mourn. 
Husband and father snatched away, 

Ah ! never to return. 

At post of glorious duty, Stubbs, 

Thy all thou didst defend ; 
Thy home, thy family, thy life, 

And bravely to the end. 

How beautiful thy face in death ! 

Pale, but serene and kind — 
Reflection of thy blameless life 

And of thy happy mind. 

A wreath of new-blown, forest flowers 
(Thy life's pure emblem) graced 

Thy coffin, where by children's hands 
They lovingly were placed. 



R. W. STUBBS. 

For noble purpose thou didst live ! 

Thou'dst have it understood 
Thou ever foundst thy true delight 

In "trying to do good." 

Can earth produce a truer soul, 

Sublimer, greater man 
Than he who lives true to this line, 

"Do all the good you can?" 

So passed the life of Robert Stubbs- 
For him, " to die was gain ;" 

To country, friends and family 
Is sadly left the pain. 



A SONNET 

TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT L. CLINGAN", 



Clingan, how sudden was thy fall ! — prepared 
And watchful, at thy post — a soldiei: true, 
You braved the danger as the bravest do, — 

Drew forth thy weapon and the assassins dared. 

Thou perfect pattern of a citizen — 
Benevolent devoted to the right, 
Philanthropic, "to do good" thy delight — 

One of Arnerica's truest, noblest men ; 

Thou wast cut off just in the prime of life: — 
Who may explain the mystery of the deed. 
And say why Providence had thus decreed 

To afflict thy children and devoted wife 

And bring such mighty woes upon our town^ 

Striking the best, hurling the purest down ! 

July 13, 18S0. 



RETROSPECT AND 
PROSPECT. 



(1877.) 



"I threw off," says Eobert Burns, "six Inmdred cop- 
ies of the first edition of my poems, of wliieli I had got 
subscription for about tliree hundred and fifty copies. 
Who thinlis tire less of poor Burns now, that he 
took this metliod of publishing his poems ? and who 
is not glad that he was not too proud to solicit sub- 
scriptions for his own work ? The wise man " putteth 
his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope." 

But how vain and foolish to covet " success," unless 
one can leave behind iiim the memory of a life devo- 
ted to the good of otliers, as did the philanthropist 
John Howard. An anecdote is related of him, that 
when asked by an Austrian noble, what he thought 
•of Austrian prisons, lie replied : " The worst in all 
■Germany, particularly as regards female prisoners ; 
and I recommend your countess to visit them person- 
ally as the best means of rectifying the abuses of their 
management." " I," said the astonished countess, " go 
into prisons!" The philanthropist replied :" Mad- 
am, remember that you are a woman yourself and 
must, like the most miserable female in a dungeon, 
inhabit a little piece of that earth from which you 
l)oth sprang." 

It was the Author's purpose, (when he gave the 
""copy" of this book to the printer) to have it include, 
in the following division, the principal patriotic pieces 
of "Poenm of the Prairies. But its publication has 
been delayed by unforseen accidents until the time is 
now come when longer delay would be fatal to the 
Author's plans. 



EETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 

o 

SONNETS. 

o 

INSCRIBED TO THE FRIENDS OF CHILDREN. 
I. 

I now have reached my fortieth birth-day ; 

A braver battle few have fought than I ; 

Fearless have ever lived, fearless shall die, 
Battling for truth and righteousness alway ; 
Despising wealth, nor coveting long life ; 

Building a monument of worthy deeds ; 

Hating all shams and sanctities of creeds ; 
Loving my children, faithful to my wife, — 
And I've been blest beyond e'en richer men, — 

Fortune has smiled upon me graciously ; 

Domestic bliss has been vouchsafed to me; 
A feast of joy our humble board has been, 
Our happy home, a cabin in the grove. 
Seat of Contentment, Gratitude and Love. 

II. 

" Suffer the little ones to come to me, " 

The Master said, while wand'ring on the earth ; 



228 RETROSPECT A ND PROSPEC T. 

'Forbid them not to climb upon my knee; 

My heavenly kingdom holds no higher worth. 

Where children do not gambol there is dearth 
Of happiness. Heaven, heaven would not be 
If there the little ones we did not see, 

The air of heaven is res'nant with their mirth." 
If not His words His meaning 't was the same. 

Of earthly joys the greatest is by far 

Where multitudes of little children are. 
The joys of Croesus with his wealth were tame 
Compared with joys of home: the warrior's glory,. 
The statesmia's eloquence a sickening story. 



III. 



Mine are the joys of home and loving wife, 

And children, too, to love, a happy throng. 

Would I could celebrate in deathless song 
What heaven has done to bless my humble life ! 
Ah, ye proud fools, still hoard your ducats vain;. 

At watering places strut like gaudy kings ; 

Ye butterflies of fashion, spread your wings ; 
I hold your hollow joys in deep disdain; 
The fool's reward you surely shall obtain, 

Since Folly's shrine gets all your offerings. 
I find at home far sweeter, purer jojs; 
My blooming wife ; my romjjing girls and boys. 

From this fond circle ripest pleasure springs ; 
For Love dwells here, and true love never cloys. 



RETROSTECT AND PROSPECT. 229 
IV. 

While babes are small what pleasure to supply 

Their little wants, to shield them in our arms. 

When they are happy how our bosom warms ! 
They look to us as we to Him on high. 
To them the giver of each gracious gift, 

We feel the grandeur of our dizzy height ; 

To give them happiness our chief delight. 
Oh, if bereft of children, how bereft! 

A parent is the greatest of the great ; 
Nor Alexander in his grandest days 

Ever arose to loftier estate 
Than to the parent is vouchsafed always. 
Let us, then, rightly fill the honored station, 
<Give to our children noblest aspiration. 

V. 

IBut what if we are poor — our families large? 

Large families are preferable to small ; 

'Tis but a little while we care for all ; 
The elder ones soon help us with our charge. 
Given, then, of children say a half a score, 

'Tis easier to bring them up by far, 
Than if you had a puny three or four ; 

But industry must be the guiding star. 
The poor man's children earn their daily bread ; 

Nor do they need to work so over-hard 
That they may not with hunger g o to bed ; 



2^o RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT, 

Nor need you deem them (because poor) ill- 
starred. 
Great riches are undoubtedly a curse, 
They enervate the body — the soul worse. 



VI. 



A friend of mine once (driven to the wall) 
From affluence arose to jjoverty. 

" No greater blessing ever fell to me," 
He said with tears: " My children, large and 

small, 
Seem to correctly comprehend it all, 

And now betake themselves to industry ; 

Before were thriftless as they well could be. 
My riches, then, I care not to recall; 
My sons will grow up to be better men, 

To thus rely upon their own strong arms; 

My daughters, too, 'twill give them truer 
charms 
To work, — they sing as happy as the wren. 
My mother, sir, could knit, and spin, and 

weave, 
A better schooling than our schools now give." 

VII. 

Indeed, our college doors are all quite barred 
Against the children of the poor. fis so 
That, now, no other than the "Tally-ho" 



RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 2 3 11 

May step into thy classic halls, Harvard. 
But, since of Franklin still the name is heard, 

Think it no hardship, poor boy, to foref^o 

To learn at Yale or Harvard how to row. 
The school where Lincoln studied is preferred, 
And Johnson, Greeley, Clay and Faraday. 

Give me the school room of the world, with. 
God 
To teach me, and throw colleges away, — 

The road to Fame is still an open road. 
New England, of thy "culture" you may boast;. 
But of the mem'ry of thy Franklin most. 

vni. 

Rounded and ripe as Attica of old 
When against Philip the great orator 
Thundered sublimely, deeply saddened for 

The venality ot Athens. Blackest mould 

And rottenness we everywhere behold 
Among the rich — corrupted to the core.'* 

Bright roses bloom^ with mildew covered o'er,. 

And priests and legislators worship gold. 

But ever glorious her yeomanry ; 
Like Putnam, loyal, patriotic, true; 

Only in ranks of toiling poverty 

" New England of the Fathers " yet we view„ 

Her churches trample down Equality ; 

Her colleges hug Aristocracy. 



232 RE TROSPli CT A ND PROSPECT. 



IX. 



I he^rd a father boasting of his son, 

How he had risen to some honored place. 
What joy was beaming in that father's face 

When speaking of the bays his boy had won ! 

Oh, let him boast ; yes, let the old man boast; 
I 'd rather be that fether than to hold 
'The highest rank on earth, and all the gold 

Pizarro gathered and the Incas lost ! 

Let us embrace our children and be proud 
Of the inheritance wc have received. 
Children arc wealth, Oh, may it be believed, 

Beyond that horded by the venal crowd. 

Shame and disgrace to him — accursed his life- 

That makes a barren mistress of his wife ! 



X. 



The married " lady," (say, is God still just!) 
Of highest "culture" that the schools impart, 
Rebels against her nature and her heart ! 

What causes this decay, this cankering rust? 

If it be " culture " trample it in the dust ! 
Go back to Nature; banish modern Art ; 
To books and schools and teachers cry" Depart!" 

Yea, 'spit upon all learning with disgust. 

Search out the hidden cancer; show its cause; 
Offshoot of wealth or pampered luxury 

(Or of bad education or bad laws ? 



RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 233 

Destroy at once the deadly Upas tree ! 
How sad the home where children do not play, 
'T is their sweet prattle drives life's gloom away. 

XI. 

What mighty int'rests are parents given ! 
We act not for ourselves alone — but we 
Act for the good of our posterity — 

Sublimest work, indeed,- this side of Heaven! 

We feel it is our duty now to leaven 

The world with temp'rance, truth and liberty, 
And have mankind embrace Christianity; 

For children all, to make the chances even. 

Let all men be compelled to give and do 
As if they loved their fellows as themselves, 

Preventing thus the sefish, venal few 

From heaping all God's bounties on their 
shelves. 

Arise our fervent prayer both night and morn: 

*'God, make it good for children to be born !" 



XTI. 



But charity for them do not beseech ; 

Loudly demand that children have their rights- 
The world belongs to them — all its delights; 

Then hold not what is theirs out of their reach ! 

All children have the same God-given claim 
Upon the world, since all are equal born, 



234 ^ ETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 

And naked all depart; then why not scorn 
To rob the babes ? Riches are but a name. 
More swinish than the swine, men sieze and 
hold 
Great heaps of rubbish that they cannot use, 
To starving infants nourishment refuse; 
They die still holding fast their bags of gold ! 
Cruel and heathenish, they go to swell 
The throng with Dives in the miser's Hell! 

XIII. 

How many orphan children crowd the streets, 

That have no friends, no home, no love, no- 
care. 
And gain no pity of the millionaire! 

He sleeps on down, and choicest viands eats. 

Wrung from the hands of Labor, all his pelf. 
Through the sore cancer of monopolies, 
Now threatening all our cherished liberties,. 

Eating the life out of the Commonwealth! 

Let us dam up these channels — stop the leaks ; 
Build for the orphans homes of happiness — 
Lifting the helpless out of their distress 

With money saved from grasp of pampered sneaks 

That drive gay, prancing steeds as white as snow> 

And cry in drunken chorus, "Tally-ho !" 

XIV. 

It must be done ! The time is near at hand 
When there will dawn a brighter, better day;, 



RETR OSPECT AND PROSPECT. 235. 

It will be said, " Old things have passed away," 
And Peace and Love triumph in every land ; 
The "better way" the loving Master planned; 

His coming little longer will delay; 

Soon all the world His mandate shall obey, 
And potentates will bow at His command. 
Kings and aristocrats will cease to be ; 

Christ and the "common people" shall prevail — 
The nations all a grand Fraternity — 

The proud " Republic ot the World" we hail — 
The glorious triumph of Democracy, 

When Wrong shall nevermore the right assail !' 

XV. 

" The people's voice is voice of God" 'tis said — 
They do the right when e'er they know the 
right- 
When they do wrong, it is when they're misled — 
And when they rule, they rule as in God's^ 

sight. 
Dethrone the Kings and Mankind cease to 
fight; 
A brother's blood the people will not shed. 
For they will all regard the Master then 

As erst they barkened to the words He spoke 
When He denounced the rich that bind the 
yoke, 
Grievous to bear, upon their fellow men. 
They " feared the people " — priest and scribe — 
forlwhen 



236 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 

The Evil One directs envenomed stroke 
Against the right, he never dares invoke 
The multitude to aid him in his sin. 

XVI. 

It is the few that lead the world to evil. 

Preach to the people " honesty " 'twill do — 
'Twill never do to preach it to the few ; 

You would as well go'preach it to the Devil. 

1 he " rings " pool millions of corruption money — 
But did the people ever give a cent 
To bribe our Congress or our President? 

You cannot say they ever gave one penny ! 

In dens and caverns of the dark earth, meet 
The agents of the gold monopoly, — 
Concert their schemes of fraud and robbery; 

But they preach "honesty" upon the street ! 

The giant " rings" must first be overthrown 

Before the car of Progress can move on. 

XVII. 

Btt now they read the writing on the wall ; 

Their doom's determined and the time is near 

When ends forever their corrupt career, 
And, like Balshazzar's, great will be their fall; 
E'en now there's tumult in the palace hall ; 

The clanging spears and clashing shields they 
hear — 

And in the lofty citadel appear 



RETROSPECT AND PSOSPECT. 237 

Avenging swords that God will not recall 
Before the poor His hand shall disenthrall, 
And little children shall have pitying ear ; 
For God is God, His veangence, Oh, severe 
'Gainst those who make the helpless ones drink 

gall! 
Their cries have reached Him and His strong 

right arm 
Descends the whirlwind and avenging storm. 

xvni. 

Woe to the tyrants that despoil our land ! 

They cry "gold! gold!" raising great din 
and clangor — 
An Earthquake shakes the world with gentler 
hand 
Than the mad Tempest of a people's anger. 
The Storm advances in grim garments dressed ! 
The clouds, deep threatening, roll in wild 
commotion ; 
Black Retribution, frowning in the West, 

Hurtles loud curses like the wrathful Ocean. 
The storm-winds gather hoarseness overhead ; 
Louder and louder roars the bass-voiced thun- 
der. 
The sky (its tongues of vengeance blazing red) 
Uncaves the ugly cyclone. Torn in sunder 
Behold huge rocks and mountains ! In their 
dread 



238 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 

The Shylocks call for mountain:: to hide under. 

XIX. 

Away with caste! The humblest man when 
free, 

Holds prouder rank in life than lord or king ; 

In all that marks the man (so poets sing) 
The poor surpass the rich. How fervently 
The laborer loves the children on his knee ! 

His honest heart — an overflowing spring! 

He 'd freely give his life an offering 
To save his country's flag and liberty. 
He read of Marion when he was a boy ; 

He heard how heroes fought at I^unker Hill ; 
His home, his wife, his children are his joy ; 

Hope swells his heart. Perhaps his offspring 
will 
Win wreaths of fame. He says, " I toil for 

bread ; 
My sons may strike for Imncr when I'm dead." 

XX. 

FATHER. 

His mind was fashioned in the woods of Maine, 
And of Ohio where Scioto flowed 
By the Wyandots' wigwams — there abode 

His teachers and playfellows. Him no chain 
■ Could fetter ; and a stoical disdain 



RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 239 

Was his of men's opinions. And he owed 

All that he was to Nature and to God, 
And to his blood that flowed of Scottish vein. 
He read much' — thought much. On him God 
bestowed 

No ordinary gift of heart and brain. 

Void of ambition — willing to remain 
Down in the valley, and the muddy road — 
Beloved by those who knczo him — satisfied 
That he was right (his heart was right) lived — 
died. 

XXI. 
MOTHER 

O Mother could I but uprear to thee 

A monument immortal as thy love ! 
Thou dwcilcst, mother, in the courts above. 

From ills of life, from sorrow ever free. 

Thou hadst not, mother, aught of vanity ; 

But thou, a Christian Wvoman, ever strove 
In holy walks and in the heavenly grove 

To lead thy children ever lovingly ; 

Nor books perused, except the Book of God. 

To thee, in childhood, learning was denied ; 

But ever in the path of duty trod 

With holy zeal, and Jesus was thy guide ; 

Religion was a crown about thy brow ; 

Mother, thou art my guardian angel now. 



TO CAKPING CRITICS. 

A SOX NET. 



I am unawed by all that fools may say ; 

Clearly in Faith's stereoscope I see 

My own America, the great and free, 
In her munificence proudly repay 
With wreath offame, the Bard whose patriot lay 

Enshrines thy sacred name, sweet Liberty. 

It matters not how wise the carpers be ; 
It matters not how lion-like they bray, 
With hope undaunted, still unmoved I stand — 

Thou art, my country, worthy of my love ; 
I look with pride upon my native land. 

And bow my knee to none but God above. 
My harp is rough — a chip from Plymouth Rock ; 
Itestrings — the fiber of the " Charter C^ak." 

May, 18C5. 




--*-<^ 



APPENDIX. 



-<g^ 






The following Occassional T;ectures of the author's 
illustrate and emphasize the arguments already pre- 
sented in his verses. They, therefore form an appro- 
priate appendix to this volune, which aims to lay bare 
the wicked purposes of the secret enemies of American 
freedom and independence, to expose the treachery of 
false leaders and to point the way to the goal of prac- 
tical equality. 

It is to the patriotic reader the truths recorded in 
this work are confided. The venal soul that allows 
private interests to hold the mastery over his mind 
and heart, will not heed the appeals — however fervent 
— of disinterested patriotism. 



§0§- 



■s^s 



Boston, Sept. 12. 1881. 
Leonard Brown : 

Dear Sir, I have received and read your es- 
say on the " Yital Issue" with great interest. Its ar- 
guments are closely woven and very satisfactory, your 
facts marslialled in logical order and they march now 
on your reader with overwhelming power. 

1 rejoice to see these young minds in the ranks of a 
cause so momentous in its importance as that of the 
Nation's taking its currency into its own control. 
Yours Respectfully, Wendell Phillips. , 



OCCASIONAL LECTURES. 



Respectfully inscribed to tiie venerable Patriot, Phi- 
lanthropist and Reformer, AV^ENDELL Phil- 
lips, of Boston, Mass. 



THE VITAL ISSUE: 



BRITISH GOLD VERSUS AMERICAN LABOR, OR 
FRAUDS OF FINANXE. 



A LECTURE 

Delimred in Bes Moines, loioa, March 2%, 1881. 

Hoodwinking the masses is the last desperate resort 
of the " rich man" to hold lal)or in subjection in the 
United States, and poclvct tlie fruits of toil through 
the manipulation of cash instead of lash, Casliis now 
king. How long, O Lord! how long before this king 
shall also be dethroned as was king Lash? May this 
cruel tyrant be put down by the potent ballot and may 
the bloody bullet be not again invoked in settling the 
strife between the many and the few, the toilers and 
the drones, tlie people and their plunderers ! 

I. — THE RESU3IPTION FRAUD. 

A bill was passed by our Congress in '69 to " strength- 
en the public credit" just at a time when our country 
stood in no more immediate need of credit than a well 
man does of medicine; but was (it is claimed) "rapidly 
paying ()ff her bonded indebtedness." Why was not this 
" credit-strengthening act" passed during the war when 
our country was getting into debt and needed to have 
her credit strengthened ? The fact is, the title of the bill 
is a fraud and a lie. The public credit has not been 
strengthened ; but the burden of debt has been more 
than quadi'upled on the shoulders of the American peo- 



APPENDIX. 



pie. Tlie title of tlie bill should rattier have lieen: "A 
bill to increase the burden of debt and to transler the 
wealtli from tlie hands of producing and laboring- 
classes of the United (States into the liandsof the mon- 
ey-lenders— the liotlichilds of Europe and their agents 
in Wall street. 

(1) The people are the pul)lic; the credit of the peo- 
ple is the public credit. Healthful national credit 
must stand on the same footing as that of the individ- 
uals of the nation. The credit of the people has been 
greatly weakened ])y a jjolicy of government that has 
diminished the value of the products of labor and pro- 
ductive property upon which credit (national and in- 
dividualj can alone be riglitly founded. Any other 
foundation of credit is only enslavement of labor. The 
foundation being removed tlie superstructure, of 
course, falls to the ground, i he foundation of the 
credit of the people is labor, the products of labor and 
real estate. Destroy their value and credit based up- 
on their value is clearly overthrown. From 1862 to 
1869 a farmer could borrow more money upon his pros- 
pective crop without giving a note of hand than he 
can borrow even now (it is not much amiss to say) up- 
on this and all his personal property and real estate 
witli notes and mortgage on top; for all productive 
property and lal)or and products of labor have had the 
bulk of the value squeezed out of them and this value 
has been squeezed into money (as Solon Chase expresses 
it) until the late secretary of the treasury, the Hon. 
John Sherman, proclaimed that tlie" purchasing pow- 
er of the dollar has been increased by resumption sixty 
per cent." — which means that all productive property 
and labor and products of labor are sixty per cent, 
cheaper to-day, compared with money, than they were 
before resumption began in 18(59, and therefore, the 
l)urden of the public debt is sixty per cent, greater. 
The immediate effect was to render labor and jiroduc- 
tion unprofitable, as Mr. Sherman himself forewarned 
the people that it would do. Factories and farms not 
paying running expenses, the factories closed doors, 
the wJieels of manufacturing stopped and the "oper- 
atives" were set adrift to wander as tramps, the na- 
tion losing during the period billions of dollars by the 
falling off of production; but farming had to go on 
with immense loss to the farmers as a class — mort- 
gages on the farms the inevitable result, so that 
now, even in Iowa, the richest garden of the green 



APPENDIX. 



5 



and bountiful eartl\ instead of there being as presi- 
dent G.iriield says, " A prosperity without a pai*allel 
in our history," heliold ;i,nd consider the farms under 
mortgage, positivnly asserted by well infcjrmed per- 
sons, after careful inquiry and examination of records 
to be at the least calcuhi,tion, one-half! This was not 
so ten years ago. The fanners were then out of debt, 
or, at least (to speak in homely phrase) the hole to get 
out of debt at was larger than the hole to get in debt 
at, but resumption opened wider the liole to get in 
debt at and plugged up the hole to get out of debt at. 
The wonderful prosperity " without a parallel in our 
history," (labor pretty generally employed, though 
strikes an every-day occurrence, tramps seen no more 
on our highways, a slight advance in the prices of farm 
pro.ducts; but nothing like so high as in 18»)5, tar be- 
low the point of deliverance for the debt-burdened far- 
mer) has been brought about by only a moderate in- 
flation of the currency, the result of an influx of gold 
from famine-stricken Europe and an increase of bank 
circulation, a wave that may at any moment subside 
and leave the ship of our present sham prosperity 
stranded high and dry upon the rocks. The usurers 
control in a great measure even now, in this country, 
the supply of currency, the national banks having 
nearly 350 million dollars of their paper afloat. When 
they find it necessary or expedient in order to advance 
their sordid and seltish schemes and robber designs, 
these banks withdraw tlieir circulation. This they be- 
gan to do the other day when interest on money im- 
mediately rose in New York City five hundred per 
cent, a panic, as on Black Friday, was imminent, caused 
by the su«lden retirement of less than twenty million 
dollars national bank currency. Mr. Sherman, secre- 
tary of the treasury, at once hastened to the rescue of 
his imperiled "resumption," purchasirg on the mar- 
ket, "With greenbacks, twenty-five million dollars gov- 
ernment bonds; thus a great financial crash, like that 
of 1S73 was prevented. The people are between the 
jaws of a huge crocodile. There is nothing to liinder 
its crushing and grinding their bones to pieces between 
its teeth at any moment. This reptile is national bank- 
ing and specie resumption. 

It was evidently known to the money lenders of both 
hemispheres that resumption would force the people 
of the United States into excessive indebtedness, as it 
did the people of England after the long war, when the 



6 APPENDIX. 

number of land owners ontlie island of Britain waS' 
reduced from 300lhousandto;;o iliousand, and millions 
of her people were made bankrupt and forced into ex- 
ile to find new homes in the American wildernsss, as 
all readers of history well know. Hence the trust and 
loan agencies representing largely British capital, be- 
came as numerous in our country, and especially in the 
rich West as green flies on a dead carcass in June or 
July. Even in advance of the general demand for moi> 
ey here did the trust and loan agencies swarm upon 
this doomed land. If the unfortunate farmer had not 
money in bank when the resumption robbery began, he 
was driven into debt to keep up necessary farm ex- 
penses (taxes, fencing, machinery, etc ) It is conced- 
ed tliat the mortgage on the farm may be traced, now 
and then to bad management on the part of the indi- 
vidual farmer; but this cannot be put down as the rule, 
that l)ad management on the part of the farmers puts 
the farming class in debt; for the farmers are men of 
at least, average good sense. Honest in their inten- 
tions they are slow to believe in the dishonesty of others, 
otherwise they could not have been so hoodwinked by 
the money monopolists who now control legislation at 
Washington, as to be led to acquiesce in a policy of 
government so opi^ressive to the farming and produc- 
ing interests. 

The Old Testament history shows that, atone time, 
the Jewish people '•mortgaged their lands, vineyards 
and houses that they might buy corn because of the 
dearth." The reason why the people of our country 
mortgaged their lands, vineyards and houses, was the 
dearth of money produced intentionally and with " mal- 
ice aforethought" by legislators, at the dictation of 
European money lenders for the purpose of confiscat- 
ing the estates of our people and giving them a bonus 
to the owners of gold, thus opeinng the way here for 
* bonanza farming" on an immense scale, and making 
the farmers in this country hereafter renters, as in the 
old world, and labor the obedient slave of capital. 
This was no secret, even during the progress of con- 
traction ; but was openly avowed by the capitalists 
through the leading metropolitan newspapers, both 
Republican and Democratic — that give voice not to the 
purposes and desires of the people, but only to those of 
the " rich man." It must come, said the New York 
Times (Republican) a change of ownership of the soil 
and a creation of a class of land owners on the one 



APPENDIX. 7 

hand and of tenant farmers on the other — something 
similar to what has long existed in the older countries 
of Europe." And the New York World (Democratic) 
said: " The American laborer must make up his mind 
not to be so much better off than the European labor- 
er. Men must be content to work for less wages. In 
this way the working man will be nearer that station 
in life to which it has pleased God to call him." 

(2) The public credit is not strengthened; for, if 
another war were upon us, as in 1861, can any man 
say that the government credit w^oidd be better now 
than it was from 18(51 to 1865 ?" 

"If any, speak! for him have I offended." The 
money monopolists, it is evident, would do as they did 
before, combine to run the nation's credit down and 
to run the price of gold up so that they could reap 
another rich harvest from the misfortunes of our be- 
loved country. They are only a banditti — and the soon- 
er the people realize this truth the better. Let man- 
kind combine against the money power as the money 
power have combined against mankind. Let the peo- 
ple protect themselves against their greatest enemy — 
the money sharks. 

Bonds are increased in their market value because 
it requires for their payment sixty per cent, more of 
products than was originally contracted; and it is 
products that pay all debts. One dollar's worth of 
bond is worth almost two dollar's worth of wheat. 
The usurer gets almost twice as much for his bond as 
he is in justice and equity entitled to, of grain, pork 
and beef— also of lands, houses, beasts of burden, mills, 
factories, machinery, goods of every kind and descrip- 
tion — books, paintings and every other handiwork, 
useful or ornamental. In proportion as labor is en- 
slaved do the few find it easy to seize upon the prod- 
ucts of labor. Is our country free to-day ? jS'o. Why 
not? Because millionaires are hatched out here. 
They are incubated only through slavery. Bad laws 
and bad iustitutions tutn over to the few the proceeds 
of the labor of the many. Good laws and good institu- 
tions would prevent this. Capital is labor's products. 
It IS perishable. Let labor cease and how long will 
capital reinain ? Ten years of universal idleness would 
render tliis world a waste. What now exists of labor's 
products will soon not be; so we will not quarrel about 
wiiat now exists. What shall be produced Ijy toil here- 
after should belong to its creators, the toilers. This 



8 APPENDIX. 

is our thesis. This we maintain is a reasonable de- 
mand. Let the laliorer be not robbed of the fruits of 
his labor and all wealth will remain with the strcmg 
of arm who produce it. Stop "dividing up;" cease 
taking from the many ])y law and giving to tlie few, 
and the working bees will s(U)n own and control all 
the honey, and the drones will Ije hurried outside the 
hive hun^Ty. All is in a nutslu 11 when it is remem- 
bered that capital is only labor's products, perishable, 
passing quickly away, to be renewed by toil, and that 
money is only a tool designed to aid production. The 
cheaper the money tool the better .for producers, and 
it should, at least, cost them as little as it costs bank- 
ers— passing directly from tl)e government to them 
without interest, as it does to the banks. Tt is possi- 
ble to dam up the channels through which products 
flow out of the hands of the men who produce them 
into the hands of the idlers— the "tally ho" of eastern 
cities. These channels are the monopolies. Let "an- 
ti-monopoly" be the watch-word of all toilers and the 
day of labor's triumph draws nigh. The many serve 
the few througli the wage system, land monopoly, 
corporate monopoly, and the bond system. The screws 
areturned by these giant powers and the wine is 
pressed out of the people's gra])es for the exhileration 
and profit of the man in "purple and fine linen who 
fares sumptuously every day" and at vvliose gate I>az- 
arus begs. The people are helpless as sheep before 
the shearer in the presence of the great engines of 
corporate tyranny, especially of the two thousand 
national banks that manipulate the bonds. Four per 
cent, lirings as much of labo]- and pi-oducts of labor 
now as a much larger per cent, did ten years ago (an 
end aimed at and secured by resumption and gold pay- 
ment) and the principal of the bonds being made pay- 
able in "specie" by an ex post facto law (clearly un- 
constitutional) is enhanced in value beyond the abili- 
ty of the people to pay for many years to come— a con- 
tinuous mortgfige on the nation's wealth— sucking the 
life blood out of production for the benefit of a robber 
class destitute of patriotism, and given over to one 
passion alone — insatiable avarice. 

(3) What then is the nation's boasted credit to-day? 
Certainly not the funding of matured live and six per 
cent, bonds, by a "solemn contract" made payable in 
lawful money (greenbacks) into four per cent, thirty 



APPENDIX. 9 

year bonds, payuble in gold or its equivalent? No, 
iiot this. 

'•Harken tliat ye may the better hear!" It is tjie 
stupendous lie that government has borrowed for 
thirty years 175 million dollars gold of the European 
syndicate at four per cent, annual interest. The gov- 
ernment has "borrowed" not one dollar of gold. We 
have indeed agreed to pay 385 million dollars gold for 
175 million dollars greenbacks; and this, in -truth, is 
the wliole sum of our boasted credit! ''Let facts be 
submitted to a candid world." Gold (175 million dol- 
lars) has been placed on deposit in the government 
safe on call, the syndicate having it in their power as 
all men know, to withdraw^ in exchange for green- 
backs " presented for redemption" every dollar of this 
gold from the national treasury at any moment by a 
click of the telegraph instrument. The late secretary 
of the treasury, Mr. 8hermaii denominates greenbacks 
"gold certificates." Wall street has this gold right 
under its thumb. Greenbacks are advertised by gov- 
ernment authority " redeemable in gold at ttie sub- 
treasury in New York in sums of fifty dollars and 
upwards." Will any man dare say that the money 
power cannot command and present for redemption 
175 million dollars greenbacks, when even the nation- 
al banks profess to be able to retire instantaneously 
200 million dollars of their circulation by dejwsiting 
greenhciGlxS in ihe United Statefi Treasury to that 
amount. These bulliouists act in concert the world 
over. They are united as one man. Wall street is the 
head-centre, the agency, in this country, of the syn- 
dicate of the old world.' It is understood that the syn- 
dicate can and will remove this gold from the United 
States treasury whenever they please to do so; and, it 
is clear, that they will please to do so whenever they 
lose control of our governmenr. These millions of 
gold will not remain on deposit in the national treas- 
ury, in all probability, tea years longer; for the peo- 
ple will certainly, ere then, awaken to see the situa- 
tion ;ind will as certainly throw olf the yoke of their 
foreign masters as our fathers did that of George III. 
in 1776, estiiblishing a legal-tender basis for money, 
demonetizing gold and silver and wiping out the stu- 
pendous rob oery denominated the national debt. 

For the 175 million dollars gold placed by the syndi- 
cate on deposit in the government safe on call for 
greenbacks, the government has given four per cent. 



lo APPENDIX. 

thirty year bonds, interest and principal payable in 
"specie," which Mr. Sherman defines to mean "gold 
of its equivalent." 

Interest on these to maturity $210,000,000 

Face of bonds 175,000,000 

Total $385,000,000 

~ gold paid by the people to "redeem" 175 millioa dollars 
greenbacks! 

In tlie same fraudulent way the people are made to 
give in "gold or its equivalent" 175 million dollars for 
silver to displace for twenty years 50 million dollars 
fractional paper currency — tliree dollars and fifty cents 
gold e(iuivalent for each dollar of paper money.' 

Bonds $ 50,000,000 

Int. 5 per cent. 30 years - . . 75,1 h k i.dOO 

Silver worn out in 20 years 5(,>,( iu( >,( lOO 

Total. .$175,000,000 

The silver coin will be worn out and gone ten years 
before the bonds become due. As tlie holder of a sin- 
ecure in England is paid a large salary, or a "star 
route" contractor in our country "reaps where he has 
not sown," so do we rent at great cost imaginary silver. 
To keep 50 million dollars silver currency actually 
afloat until the thirty year bonds become due, will re- 
quire 

Bonded debt (additional) $ 50,000,000 

Int. 10 years " 25,000,000 

Silver worn out " 25.000.000 

Add previous expenditure 175,0(X),OO0 

Total .$i!75,000,000 

or five dollars and fifty cents "gold equivalent" for 
each dollar displaced of fractional paper money. The 
length of time silver coin in actual use as a currency is 
estimated to last is only twenty years, on a principle 
of reckoning similar to that whicli places the average 
life of man st thirty-six years. Some men, liowever, 
live to be a hundred years old and some silver coins 
are very ancient. Fifty million dollars silver coin to 
last a century for a currency will cost, on the Sherman 
plan 
30 years bonds (5 issues 50 million dollars 

each,) $250,000,000 

Interest 150 years 375,000,000 

Silver worn out in 100 years 250,000,000 

Total $875,U007)0(> 



APPENDIX, II 

to take the place of 50 million dollars fractional paper 
money, a better money than silver and that costs only 
the price of the paper and the printing — not so mnch 
as even the coinage of the silver— seventeen dollars 
and fifty cents '-specie" (g^old eqnivalent) for each dol- 
lar of paper money. This is a fair sample of the whole 
resumption cheat. 

The g-overnment gives 210 million dollars bonus to 
European capitalists to induce them to deposit with 
our government 175 million dollars gold, to remain on 
deposit in the government safe just so long as the syn- 
dicate that deposits it pleases to alloAV and to be drawn 
out by them at their discretion in redemption of non- 
interest-bearing greenbacks at par, the government 
paying interest on the gold say, at least, twenty years 
after the syndicate lias got it all back in their own 
vaults in exchange for greenbacks, 385 million dollars 
gold paid for 175 million dollars greenbacks — two dol- 
lars and twenty cents gold for each dollar greenback 
money. 

At one time during the war, the patriotic bullion 
owners bid one dollar gold for two dollars and eighty- 
five cents, greenbacks, investing in greenbacks at that 
price, they said, "to make some monish." IS'ow the 
grateful government "resumes" giving the bullion 
owners two dollars and twenty cents gold for each of 
at least 175 million dollars greenbacks "to strengthen 
the public credit." 

II^THE NATIONAL BANKING FRAI'D. 

Let us now look at the national banking fraud. 

The notes of these banks are said to be "redeemable." 
This saying is a lie. They are declared by law "re- 
ceivable at par in all pans of the United States inpay- 
ment of all taxes and excises and all other dues lo the 
United States except duties on imports, and also for 
all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the 
United States to individuals, corporations and associ- 
ations within the United States, except interest on 
public debt." And the statute also expressly declares 
these notes "money." Why was this endorsement 
given them by the government ? Being thus endorsed, 
declared to be '• money," and forced into circulation 
paid out to certain creditors of the nation [" honest," 
must we say, "to pay those creditors national bank 
'money;'" "dishonest" to pay bond owners green- 
backs!] and received in payment of public dues by 



12 APPENDIX. 

the authority of law, renders national bank ))i)]s 
practically identical as money with gTPenhacks in 
wliicli tliey are pvetciulcd to l)e redeemable. Xation- 
al bank bills are no more redeemable than are silver 
and gold. They are inter-chaiigealjle at par for otiier 
forms of money. Trade dollars are not thus inter- 
changeable because not legal tender. It is clearly 
not optional with government, "individuals, corpora- 
tions, and associations" to "receive" national bank 
bills or not when presented or tendeied in payment of 
taxes and debts as the law directs. They are, by law, 
compelled to receive and not refuse them. Law lays 
down a rule binding every day, every hour, every 
minute and every second until repealed. Therefore 
until the statute (speaking the nation's voice repeal- 
ing this robl)er law) says " refusable," the bank bills 
must circulate as fiat nn)ney. and never return upon 
the issuer. It is a huge sham to talk of one money 
being redeemable in another money — the one being- 
made as good by legal endorsement as tlie other. Le- 
gal-tend'r and quant legal tender nuiy be interchange- 
able, butnou redeemable, interchangeableness being 
the re-ult o' par value, not par value the result of in- 
terchangeableness. No man will ever be so idiotic as 
10 present a national bank bill for "redemption" in 
greenbacks with the expectation of obtaining a bet- 
ter moni y thereby while the bank bill continues "re- 
ceivable" for taxes, salaries, etc: The authors of this 
measure to conceal their seltis purpose evised a cun- 
ning heat, procuring congress to place upon the bank 
bills the word " receivable" instead of the word '• legal 
tender." Worthless non-interest-bearing bank notes — 
the credit of private corporations, they had government 
endorse and make practically legal-tender under cover 
of the word receivable." " (Jrave doubts" have never 
been entertained by the n ttioiuil bankers, nor by their 
accredited agents in the presidential chair (it w. uld 
seem) of the power of congress to do this. It is (we 
must conclude) in their opinion '• constitutional" for 
congress to enact that luitional baidv bills " shall be re- 
ceivable at par in all parts of the United States in pay- 
ment of ;ill taxes and excises and aU other dues to the 
United States, except duties on imports and also for 
all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the 
United States toindivuluals, corporations and associa- 
tions within the United States except interest on pub- 
lic debt." But to bestow precisely this same, tax-pay- 



APPENDIX. 13 

ing and debt-paying quality and power on jjreenbacks, 
the credit of the s"''vernme"nt ■•p:rave doubts are en- 
tertained whether it is warranted by the constitution," 
say th y. The national banking: corporations have is- 
sued tlu'ir ukase and thr e successive presidents of 
the UuitedStates iu the role of heralds have proclaimed 
it: "The (J leiiback must be destroyed." Then will 
the money lenders have the pe pie completely in heir 
power and all business under a deadfall. The bank- 
ing and credi or class may spring the trigger, crush 
all industries and bankrupt society at pleasure, gath- 
ering all tlie property of the delator class into their 
possession. 

The endorsement of government clearly monetizes 
the national bank l)ills, equalizes them with greenbacks 
in money (faality for the payments named in the law 
and for all ther payments, since no one Avill refuse 
that " money" which the government of his country 
accepts, witliout itmay be the national bankers tliera- 
selves who, having this license, will use it when it 
shall be to their interest to do so. Who will pn sent 
an axe to be redeemed in another axe no better than 
the one to be redeemed? The axes might be inter- 
changeable if eciually good, it being then indifferent 
which axe one had to work with,— interchangeable be- 
cause equally good, not equally good because inter- 
changeable. xV distinction with a marked difference. 
Xick badly one of the axes, leaving the other sharp, 
and they are no longer interchangeable the one for the 
other indifferently. The sharp axe will be taken by 
the workmen every time and the dull axe left behind. 
iSTlck t.K' greenback deprive it of legal tender quality, 
as President (xarheld asks Congres to do, and no man 
will take greenbacks when bank bills can be had that 
have the word " receivable" stamped upon them by law 
— take away " i-eceivable" from bank bills, as the peo- 
ple should compel their servants — the law makers at 
Washington — immediately to do, and no one will take 
bank bitls when greenbacks marked "legal-tender" 
can be obtained. 

But let Congress attempt to demonetize the nation- 
al bank bills and the national bankers will protest 
against it loudly, unless the greenbacks are demone- 
tized at the same time. They will not oppose the de- 
monetization of the national bank l)i lis after the green- 
backs have all been destroyed; for they have so de- 
clared in resolution at Saratoga; since, to deprive the 



!.4 APPENDIX. 

people of all debt-paying, tax-paying paper money 
would render them still more powtu'lfss and depend- 
ent upon usurers. Nothing l>ut specie paying taxes and 
debts, and the banks cornering the specie they would 
hold the people tightly in hand and well under the 
yoke. Bank paper would still circulate; for the peo- 
ple must have a paper currency and "wild cat" is 
preferal)le to no paper money at all. Legal tender pa- 
per alloat, bank notes could not by any means have 
been palmed upon the people during tlie war but for 
their endorsement by government. This is the reason 
why " receivable" was prinited on the Dills. Govern- 
ment endorsement was essential to the bank note then, 
because the greenback existed and while the greenback 
continues to exist it is essential still. Bank paper can- 
not survive and float beside the greenl^ack a day with- 
out being qnasi legal tender— a greenback in disguise, 
but a thief and a robber in fact and in deed. The rea- 
son why old style bank notes ever floated as a currency 
is, clearly, the superiority of paper money over metal 
money iii convenience. The people were willing to 
take risks and receive bank paper solely because of the 
inconvenience of handling specie. It was a price paid 
for convenient money that every dollar of wild-cat pa- 
per did not hasten immediately back to the banks for 
redemption in coin. Nobody wanted coin if paper 
could be had that was passable, and nobody wants 
coin to-day, as Mr. Sherman himself admits. Tlie 
bond-owners are clamoring for the demonetization of 
the greenbacks so that bank l)ills may be the only pa- 
per money of our country and tiie lords and gods of the 
United States be forever tlie national bankers. Says 
the iVez<; York Mercantile Journal: "The national 
bank managers insist upon retaining power to regulate 
tlie volume of the currency at their pleasure, and with- 
out any restriction from the laws under which banks 
are organized. Twenty years ago the government 
could have as logically surrendered its capital to the 
rebels, as Congress can now surrender this power to 
the banks or to any particular class of its citizens." 
Did not the banks threaten the government and the 
nation the other day with a contraction of the currency 
that would destroy all business, and did not I'resident 
Hayes get down on his coward kness to them and veto 
the refunding bill at their dictation ? and does not Presi- 
dent Garheld say : '• The refunding of the national 
debt at a low rate of interest should Ije accompVished 



APPENDIX. 



15 



without compelling the withdrawal of the national 
bank notes and thus disturbing the business of the 
country?"— "Compelling!"— tlie banks hold over the 
heads of the people the tlireat of "retiring their circu- 
lation" to compel them to yield to the wicked demands 
of soulless corporations, mad as were the slave buyers 
before the war and as determined to rule or ruin. But 
each and every national bank bill would be " retired 
from circulation" by the people themselves "pass to 
the bourne whence no traveler returns"~be spurned 
as they ought to l)e now under our feet, it they were 
not " receivable" for public dues, etc., but depended 
sor value on redeemability in legal-tender paper mon- 
ey. Having no superiority over greenbacks in conven- 
ience (as old style bank paper had over specie; and 
being no longer "receivable," bank bills would not be 
in any demand when greenbacks could be obtained. 
National bank bills are practically an "irredeemable" 
•currency, there being no difference in their nature 
from greenbacks in a legal sense— even exempt from 
taxation as a form of "government credits"— same as 
greenbacks. The points of difference are tliese: their 
tremendous expensiveness to tlie people and the sham 
pretense of being an " innocent note payable in green- 
backs on demand." They are a lie, a cheat, a whole- 
sale robbery of the people, a conliscation (at one swoop) 
■of 350 million dollars of the nation's wealth and its be- 
stowal gratis on the bond owning class— and this last 
statement will bear repea':ing until public attention is 
awakeiied to the enormity of the wrong. 

It is worthy of special note that while bank bills are 
practically legal tender in payment of public dues, sala- 
ries of ofticials, <!s postma.sters, etc. — for soldiers pay 
and pensions of disabled "boys in blue" and their 
widows and orphans— for wages of all laborers em- 
ployed on public works — carpenters, masons, hod-car- 
riiers, etc., — to canal, railroad and ship companies for 
transportation of troops, munitions of war and carry- 
ing the mails — t • manufacturing companies in pay- 
ment for powder, balls, pistols, guns, cannons, and 
all other war implements and material— to mercliants 
for clothiiig, and to farmers for provisions for army 
and navy — to ship builders in payment for monitors 
and other ships of war — yet tliey are not "receivable" 
by the bankers themselves as a class for what the peo- 
ple owe them. And the government, too, is choked 
off from paying the national bankers in heir own 



1 6 APPENDIX. 



'•money" the interest on the very bonds that are the 
basis of the banking fraurt. n:Cach banker is oljliged to 
accept only his own individual currency from tlie peo- 
ple and not national bank 1 til Is in general — aiid from 
the go vernuient not even his own individual bank notes 
as interest on bonds, which " shall l)e paid in coin." 
Who dictated tlie passage of this despicaljle act, ex- 
emptirig tlie national Vtauking class from the necessity 
of taking bank " money" and forcing it on government 
and iiidiNidualsV The pt'ople never dictated tlic pas- 
sageof any such prepostero\is law; Init only the buizen- 
faced national bankers themselves. Tiie national bank- 
ers have been presented a bonus of 350 million dollars 
tax-paying, debt-paying "money" — a virtual conlisca- 
tion, (t agai)i atlirm) of 350 million dollars of the peo- 
ple's property and the giving oftliesauu; gratis lo a 
class of men able to li\e without b(iugtIiussu])ported 
as paujters by lavish taxation and sweeping robljery of 
the producing class. Giving away the checks for prop- 
erty is Llie same tiling in effect as giving away the 
property itself that the checks will buy — a wholesale 
confiscation (let us ever bear in mind) of 350 million 
dollars of the people's property and its bestowal gratis 
on tlie bond owning class — "communism,'' indeed of 
the most liateful type; for it is rolibing the poor to 
give to the rich. Give me the checks for all the prop- 
erty of the nation and all the property of the nation is 
mine, as when I have a sheritf' s deed for your farm it 
is mine. Let prices rise or fall it is no matter. I ran 
command all things for sale. Let the farmer be deluded 
with an apparent high price for his grain, pork and 
beef, in consequence of an inflation of bank bills — it is 
only a delusion — the grain, and pork and beef are tlie 
bankers who have receiveil as a gratuity from govern- 
ment tlie checks that must command the surplus 
products and the labor of flin land. Inllation of bank 
bills and consequent advanced prices of labor and 
products, are no sign of prosperity of producers and 
laborers as a class, but mark only the issuance by g v- 
ernment gratuitously to bond owners of so many more 
checks for property and labor — tlie confiscation of so 
ninch moi-f' of thf" wealth of theconntrvand its bestow- 
al gratis on the bond-owning class. The l)ond owners 
have only to present the checks that cost them nothing 
and walk off witli tin; property. Let tlic government 
legaliz:' counterfeiting as it "has legalized national 
banking and it would be no greater but only the very 



APPENDIX. 17 

same wrong to labor. And let it give into the hands 
of a few counterfeiters the monopoly of issuing an un- 
limited amount of counterfeit paper money, the gov- 
ernment endorsing tliis pa])er as it does national bank 
bills, (whicli are, in fact, only counterfeit money le- 
galized) let these monopolists issueat once 350 million 
dollars of this sham"monfAy" made a good as gold by 
legal endorsement — same as national bank notes are. 
Times w 11, of course, V)ec()me (lush, V)ecau:^e of the 
abundance of this counterfeit currencv; and shallow 
observers ami intei-ested liars and deceivers of the 
people will gloat over the •' wonderful prosperity" of 
the country, as they do now. I'ut the fact will ever 
rema'n incontrovertalde, as it is to dav, under nation- 
al banking, that the ownership of 3")0 million dollars 
wortli of property thus passes from the many to the few 
— from the people to the counterfeiters. This is na- 
tional banking (legalized couuterfpiting) and its results 
as seen to-day in our country. What a tremendous 
advantage tliis robb'n" system gives British capital over 
American labor! British capitalists through their 
agents establish and control the principal money cor- 
porations in America. It is British capital under spe- 
cie l)asis and national banking that moves and controls 
through Wall street, all the great operations of l)usi- 
ness and exchange on tliis continent. By giving up 
the legal-tender greenback, we abdicate power, sur- 
render sovereignty, l^ecome vassals and slaves of Eng- 
land — paying tribute to her moneved aristocracy be- 
yond all that is exacted by her from India, Africa, 
Australia, Canada, and all her othei' colonies and pos- 
sessions, and far beyond the wildest dreams and ex- 
pectations of George III, and the fears that led our 
fathers into the war of the Revolution — the annual 
drain on American production for interest alone even 
now, bping fas Avill l^e more fully shown before the 
close of this lecture) not less than 1.300 million dollars! 
An English writer lately said: "The large capital of 
England is the most essential weapon now reiuaining 
by Avhich our [England's] supremacy can be main- 
tained." And the Lo7ifZo)? £'eo7j,om/.si5 adds: "When 
the United States debt is paid off it will, in effect be 
a subtraction from the profits of European capital ((lual 
to an income tax of three slullings in the pound." 
How true are the words of Mr. Winder, who, in his 
testimony Ijefore the monetary commission of the 

2* 



i8 APPENDIX. 

Forty-fifth Congress, said: •' Tlie power of a creditor 
country over the currency, interest and welfare of 
a largely delitor country with oonvertihle eunencj', 
is more searcliin.o-, absolute and despotic than that of 
any tyrant tliat has ever plundered the people. And 
he furtliei- adds: "'IJut the great, ami transcendent 
wrong (;nid most absufd violation of every principle 
of justice and political ec^onomy) was the change of 
payment of the bonds from greenbacks to coin. But 
it was of a piece with all the rest of the financial pol- 
icy of our government, which seems to have been (as 
most assuredly it was) as wliolly in favor of foreign 
intex-ests and against American, as though our admin- 
istration had been conducted exclusively by foreign 
•cabinets." 

The Old World has gold that has been, thousands 
of years, accumulating in the vaults of her banks 
through usury and tlie idundering of weak nations by 
force of arms in the interest of the lords "of cash.'" 
The New World has pioducts that spring almost 
spontaneously fiom lier virgin soil. It is evidently 
the cunning and hateful purpose of the Old World 
bullionisls to absorb (or steal) the products of the New 
World tlirough interest paid Ijy us to them, for a thing 
we do not need, atid really cannot use, /. e., gold. Sup- 
pose Mr. Sherman did, indeed, purchase in good faith 
with tlte four per cent thirty year bonds 175 million 
dollars l^ritish gold now in the treasury, inteiuling it 
to be coined into curnincy to circulate hi tlie channels 
of business. here instead of legal tender greenbacks, 
until worn out~a very few years — not over fifteen; 
for gold Ijeing softer, wears out more readily tluni sil- 
ver— the cost to the people will be a clean hiss of 

Bonded debt to be paid '$175,(J()0,0(X) 

Interest 30 yenrs 2]0,000,0(X) 

Gold coin worn out 175,000,000 

Total $560,000,000 

for the sake of having in cir(uihition for fil'teen y(^ars 
175 million dollars gold coin in the placeor 175 million 
dollars greenbacks. To keep this anu)uiit of gold cur- 
rency in the channels of business here for thirt v years 
on the >^ hermau plan, as al)0ve, will co>t our pcoi)le 
l,l"i<» million dollars; and tor one hundi* d years 3,7()0 
million dollars— a constant outflow of 'XI nhllion dol- 
lars yearly tribute to England, while greenbacks 
tvould cost comparatively nothing; saving to our in« 



APPENDIX. 19 

dustries nearly every dollar of this vast sum, which 
must be paid to European capitalists in our suiplus 
products, wheat, corn,piaiv, Iteef, cotton and wool, etc., 
at gold prices — lower and lower as gold l)ecomes 
scarcer and scarcer. * * * * Gold and silver must 
be "monetized" by legal enactment to l)e valid money 
same as papei', wiiich it furnished the peoph; by the 
government after the plan of 1723. so highly approved 
by Dr. Fninklin. would be u source of revenue to our 
country. 

But paper money is now, has been for many years 
and ever will be practically the only money of busi- 
ness. Let this be no longer issued as a loan without 
interest by the government to bondowners. National 
banking should be at once suppressed. If under 
this system we are not compelled as "individuals, 
corporations and associations" to borrow directly the 
foreigner's gold, we are compelled to borrow national 
bank bills, issued by our government gratis to the 
agents of British capitalists, who have invested their 
gold in American bonds. How completely, then, the 
national banking system and spf cie basis bring us in- 
to dependence upon foreign bullion owners for money 
both paper and specie I We exchange goveriimeut 
bonds for bullion to be coined into specie, and these 
same bonds are then made the basis of national bank- 
ing — ninety per cent Of their face value being return- 
ed to the bond purchaser by the government, in na- 
tional bank money made as good as greenbacks by 
government endorsement — a free gifi to the bond- 
owners^one hundred thousand dollars, four, five or 
six per cent bonds, costing the banker only ten thous- 
and dollars. Upon this small investment he draws 
from the production of our country four thousand, 
live thousand or six thousand dollars yearly interest. 

Rather let the law say to every working man in 
America "Deposit your earnings in tlie money-order 
postofflce, receive from government four per cent 
annual interest on the same for thirty years, take 
back immediately from government ninety per cent 
in money as good as thac you deposit — on the same 
terms that bondowners are given ninety per cent of 
the face value of their bonds in tax-jiMving, debt-pay- 
ing "money." Such appreciative attention to the 
interests of the toilers by the government would be a 
g"reat boon to the industrious, going +'ar to preserve 
in the hands of the working people the wealth pro- 



20 APPENDIX. 

duced l)y them. If tlicgovenirneiit imist pay interest, 
let it l)e paid to Aincrican vvoi'kers to stimulate pro- 
duction ajid aid producei-s, and ])"t to Hritisli capital- 
ists and tlieii' agents to lie used Ity tlicni to Ijieak down 
our govei'nment, as those capitalists attempted to do 
by openly assisting tlie South in the late war, for 
which EiiKh'iid was coniiK'llcd to make i-estitution to 
the rnitcil Slates lor dainafres of sixteen and one-half 
millions of dollars, liritish c;ti)italists aie oui- enemies 
to-day, as they were diiiin}< our civil striU-. iintish 
aristocracy is the unrelenting foe of American Dem- 
ocracy. 

Why should not the toih-r have tlie right to deposit 
even his ten dollars and draw upon it four per cent 
anniftd interest for thirty years, receiving also imme- 
diately from government nine dollars of currency, if 
the bondowner, is allowed on his om; hundred thous- 
and dollars invested in bonds four jier cwwi. annual in- 
terest for thirty years and a l)onus of ninety thousand 
dollars legal ])aper "money y" Is not the ten dollars 
of the (earnings of an American laborer as deserving' 
of a bonus of nine dollars and four per cent annual 
interest for thirty years, as tlie one hundred thousand 
dollars of bondciwners, money, got l)y usury, is of a 
bonus of niiH^ty thousand ilollars and four per cent 
anniud interest for thirty years V J.et the toilers of 
our country demand equal rights under our laws with 
foreign capitalists and their Tory agents hej-e that 
manipulate the government to sustain the national 
bardving swiiuUe. 

Tlu^n (to show iTU)re clearly the superior possibilities 
and "'advantage " of natiomil banking even, on a 
small scale) the working nuin might, with a capital of 
only twenty dollars, (b^posit in the money-order post- 
otlii-e ten dollars, receive liack nine, dejiosit ten again, 
receive l)acK nine, and going on in this way until he 
has not a ten to deposit, h(^ would hav(! the govern- 
ment indel)ted to him one; hundred and t(;n dollars, 
and yet liave remaining inne of his original twenty 
dollars cajjital. This investment of only eleven dol- 
lars, would bring him four dollars and forty (^ents per 
annum interest, foity per cent or in thirty years one 
bundled and thirty-two dollars, drawn from the na- 
tif)nMl governnu'ut. Figures do not lie. This is an 
epitome of the national l)anking system. At the end 
of twenty years the baidsci- has received from govern- 
ment eighty thousand dollars interest on a ten 



APPENDIX. 21 

thousand dollar loan— 40 pr. ct. pr. annum. Every 4 
per cent bond lield as the basis of national banking, 
pays tlie banker forty per cent per annum, wljile bis 
bank cliarter lasts, every five per cent, fifty, and every 
six per cent, sixty, for one hundred tliousand dollars 
in bonds costs liim only ten tliousand dollars— tlie 
ninety per cent tax-paying, debt-paying money return- 
ed being practically a free gift to tlie banker from the 
government. To lend tlie banker,(or any man,) money 
for twenty years without interest is, in effect, to make 
him a present of the money, to say nothing of the 
banker's having his loan renewed Ijy getting his bank 
"rechartered" at thfe end of the twenty years, which 
he confidently expects to do, and certainly will do, if 
the people do not again take control of the govern- 
ment and prevent it, as they did when they elected 
old "Hickory" Jackson, of Ijlessed memory. President. 
Truly the national Ijanking system gives the capital- 
ists an unlimited power over the people, of taxation 
and extortion — a power greater than our government 
itself possesses, that, in theory, cannot tax the people 
without their consent (though in practice it often 
does.) These corporations are the aljsolute masters 
of the American people to-day. O that we could say 
in reverbant tones, awakening a slumbering nation: 
Tliey sJiall not he so to-morrom ! They can bankrupt 
and make a tramp of every business man in the Unit- 
ed States in thirty days; and they will do it whenever 
they deem it to their interest. They threaten it now, 
if not obeyed l)y the recreant old-party leaders, who 
are, at this moment, in greater terror of the banks 
ban the Czar is of the Nihilists. Let the national 
banks suddenly retire their circulation 200 million 
dollars, as they have tlireatened to do, if not obeyed 
by the government, and ruin will sweep through this 
land, devouring all business as the fiames devoured 
Chicago. Public indignation, rising to sublime inten- 
sity as it did in the North when Peauregard opened 
fire on Sumter, would Iniry tlie rotten leaders out 
of sight. Our country to-day is Prometheus, 

"Chained to the cold rocka of Mount Caucasus'" 

ithe national banking corporations are 

"The vulture at hia vitals:" 

corrupt party leaders, Vulcan, wiio forged the chains 
'that bind our country. The "links of the lame Lem- 
|nean" are indeed "festering" in her fieshi 

If the laws would only declare farmers' notes with- 



22 APPENDIX. 

out interest secun;(J ]jy first mortgage on productive 
lands Ctlie notes covering say ninety per cent legal 
valuation of taxable land — same per cent of credit 
as is alio we^l capitalists on non-taxalile bonds) "re- 
ceivalde at par in all parts of the Cnited States in 
j)aynient of all taxes and excise Jind all other dues to 
totheCniied States, excej»t duti(^s on irnpoits and 
also for all salai-jes and oth(;]- debts and demands ow- 
ing by the [/liitcid States to individuals, corjioiations 
and associations within the L'nited States except in- 
terest 0)i public debt," how soon would the farmers 
be free from th(! Iiurden of usury i* These notes being 
thus ' nionet;i/.e<l" by tlie endorsement of the general 
government and put afloat by the farmeis in all parts 
of the I'liion iiKjst distant from the homes of the 
persons issuing them fas bank notes are; they would 
never come back to the farmers for ix'demption any 
more than bank notes oorrie back to linkers for re- 
demption. Let tiiem float foj- twenty years the same 
as Ijank notes; then at the end of that time "re- 
charter" them to float without interest or redemption 
for a second twenty years, and then again for a third, 
and so on ad injlnitem same as bankers propose for 
their currency, as will be presently shown. Then might 
we sing. 

'"i'he independent farrnei'I" The farmer would be 
king. lie ought to be. Agiieulture should be foster- 
ed by legislation. It is the supreme interest. Jiut, it 
appeals that the faimers, in this rich and productive 
country, have l>ecome the abject slaves of gold mono- 
polists of the <jld wo)ld I'educed to this condition by 
the financial policy of our government foreign bond- 
owneis dictating the laws — Jiritish oligarchy govern- 
ing Ameiica. 

Jiut I'lesident (iaifield asks congress to do some- 
thing f(U- the fainieis of our countiy. "The inter(;sts 
of agriculture" lui says in his inaugural address, de- 
serve more attention from government than they have 
yet received. The farms of the I'nited Slates afford 
liomes anrl (employment for more than one half our 
people and fuinish much the largest part of all our 
exports. As the goveiiiment liglits our coasts for the 
pi-oteetion of niaiineis and tin; benefit of our com- 
inerce, so it should giv.'to the tillers of the soil the 
liuhifi of pracMcdl ■icience and ex'pariencc ! M(ni(;y is 
of supieme interest to American farmers as well as to 
foreign owners of American bonds. (Jive our farmers 



APPENDIX. 



23 



the same benefits of financial legislation as are given 
by our governiaeiit to the liritisli owneiscjf our bonds, 
(or a titlie of tliose ben(;litsj and our fanners could 
then hold their grain, pork and beef in spite of Eu- 
ropean conilHnaLiotis, and Anieilca could set her own 
prices on lier own products. Europe would be coin- 
pelleil to get dowii on her knees to us, since the old 
world must have these products or starve. 'J'lie new 
must feed the old, woin-out world. Which ouglit to 
be king, bread or gold? WJiich is of greater impor- 
tance to mankind V VVhen we need gold it hid<'S, as 
during our war. When we do not need it 'tis forced 
on us, as to-day. (Juglit gohl (ix tln' price of bread, or 
bread ^\x the price of gold? Li^t gold lix the pi'ice of 
bread, we are slaves. Let bread {\-^ the price of gold, 
we are freemen, Kigiit here lies the heart of the issue 
between hard monc^y and soft— between gold aud 
greenbacks. The man that stands over me and says 
what I shall have and must accept for my products 
and my work is my master and I his slave, America 
is the slave of England l)ecause of specie basis, (iold 
means our enslavement; greenljacks our freedom and 
independence. With legal-tender paper money filling 
all the channels of biisin(;ss hej-c Europe has nothjrig 
that America is obliged to buy. This accounts for 
the gieat interest Joim liiiil takes in American mo- 
netary affairs. The greenback is our second ])eclara- 
tion of Independ nee. Let us d(;fend and perpetuate 
it with "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" 
if need be, "Independence now; independence for- 
ever," being the sentinif-nt of every true patri(;t heart 
as it was the "living sentiment and the dying senti- 
ment of .John Adams. If the old world werf to sink 
under the sea a thousand fathoms deep it would not 
make a ripple on the placid ocean of our jnosperity 
if v)e 0,1 dloosd from gold. We can live and prosper 
ctjnquering a gigantic rebellion while gold hides its 
infamcjus head. But for our government to legislate 
value right out ot our lajids, labor and products and 
I^islate that value right into British gold right out 
of everything we do possess and riglit into the veiy 
thing (^gold) we do not possess, and even threatening, 
at the siime time to destroy the Lincoln greenback, 
the savior of (jur nation's life, the source of our pros- 
perity, "a present help in ev-ny time of need," and 
then buying gold buUifiii of the foreigner with interest- 
bearing bonds and returning to the bondowner, gratis^ 



24 APPENDIX. 

ninety per cent of tlie face value of these bonds in 
tax-paying, debt-paying "money Ijetter tlian gold it- 
self, because more convenient, and making gold the 
^'measure of all values" here— is not this getting 
downi voluntarily on our knees to Europe V Who is 
the Benedict Arnold that has thus surrendered our 
country, to tlie foreign enemy? British capitalists 
cornering the gold and controlling the amount of 
money in our country, both specie and paper, do now 
even to-day, fix the prices of our products, lands and 
labor, holding us as dependents and slaves. Is any 
man so blinded by party spirit he does not see this? 

€au any man fail to see that all the millions of dol- 
lars paid Ijy the people of this country to money lend- 
ers for interest would be saved to the American pro- 
ducers if the government gave the same favoraljle en- 
>dorsement to well-secured, non-interest-bearing notes 
•of tanners, manufacturers, merchants, mechanics and 
laborers as it does to the non-interest bearing notes of 
bond-owners? Bank notes (so called) perforin the 
functions of money; so would these as well under a 
system that could be made plain and practical in a 
bill not half so long and intricate as the national bank 
act — which was made so on purpose, no doubt, to de- 
ceive the people whom it was desired to defraud and 
rob. 

Bank bills are recognized as "money"' by tbe laws — 
then they are given as a bonus to bond-owners for 
twenty years — the length of time their bank charters 
last. At the expiration of the first twenty years, if 
the bondowners still control the government as they 
do now, the charters will be renewed for another pe- 
riod of twenty years and, at the end of that time, 
again for another period of twenty years, and thus on 
and on in perpetivo, a debt without interest never to 
be paid as long as foreign bullion owners and na- 
tional bankers control our government and the na- 
tional banking law remains inirepealed — stolen prop- 
erty to be held until the people recover it from the 
thieves. 

Besides the 350 million dollar steal, the national 
bankers have received from our government in inter- 
est on the 400 million dollars, bonds, the "basis" of 
the banking fraud 20 million dollars per annum, 
amounting in twenty y 'ars to 4C0 million dollars, a 
sum that would have ueen saved to American pro- 
ducers, if the bonds hal been "cut up in little bits of 



APPENDIX. ^5 

paper" and put afloat as greenbacks. Xot only would 
the 400 million dollars interest have been thus saved, 
but the 400 million dollars bonded debt, also, floating 
among our people as greenbacks would have been a 
perpetual blessing —not a debt to be paid but an in- 
strument to promote the prosperity of our country 
■forever. 

The American people have lost then in twenty years 
through the national banking swindle 

Interest on 5 per cent bonds $100,009,000 

Bonds 400,000,000 

Paper money gratuity 350,000,000 

Total $1,150,000,000 

All this vast sum has been worse than thrown away 
— enriching as it does the few, increasing their power 
to oppress the people and corrupt the officials of gov- 
ernment and impoverishing the many innocent vic- 
tims. 

Let us look at the loss already figured in round 
numbers far below the aggregate as the figures before 
givea do not include the 28 million dollars annual in- 
terest paid by the people to the banks for the privil- 
ege of using bank notes as money. The figures should 
show: 

Bonus paid on gold deposit fraud $ 210,000,000 

Bonds for said sham 175,000,000 

Silver swindle to displace fraction pa- 
per currency for 20 years 175,000,000 

National bank swindle 1,150,000,000 

Add 20 years int. paid for bank notes 8 
per cent 560,000,000 

Gives total $2,270,000,000 

But the national banks made not less than forty per 
<;ent profit in purchasing the bonds at a discount with 
depreciated greenbacks in the beginning. Forty per 
<3ent of 400 million dollars equals 160 million dollars. 
Thus have the people of the United States been gulled 
out of 2,430 million dollars, a sum vastly larger than 
the indemnity levied by Germany upon France at the 
close of the Franco-Prussian war (and these figures 
show but a tithe of the loss to our industries already, 
Ijy this baneful foreign system of finance) robbed of 
this vast amount by the European Rothchilds and 
their agents, the national banking syndicate that 
holds its annual congress at Saratoga New York, the 



26 APPENDIX. 

United States government enforcing tlieir robber de- 
crees. 

Do not the national bankers pay taxes ? Not a tithe 
of what producers pay — not a hundredth part of what 
is given them as a gratuity l;)y the government do the 
national bankers ever return to the fedpral treasury. 
''One per cent of tlieir issue" pays not the printing of 
their bills and bonds — costing the national banker not 
so much to issue his notes as money as it does a coun- 
terfeiter to print counterfeit bills. 

If national banking is so profitable why do private 
banks exist ? 

Because private banking has some advantages 
over national banking for men of moderate capital: 

1st. The private banker has the lone and sole man- 
agement of his bnsiness. 

2d. The private banker has the benefit of all de- 
posits, discounts, etc., and has not to share profits 
witli associates in business as in national banking, 
where "the big fish eat up the little fish." 

When a national 1)ank breaks is it not compelled to 
redeem its notes V If finally for any cause a national 
bank is compelled to surrender its charter (these banks 
never do or can break unless in stock gambling or 
other outside speculations foreign to the banking bus- 
iness,) the government redeems the outstanaing bank 
notes in gold bought of .John Bull with interest- 
bearing bonds, thus making our bond system perpet- 
ual, and repays the bank every dollar it has ever 
really paid for the bond — ten per cent of its face val- 
ue. When banks "retire their circulation" they only 
exchange with the government paper money for gold 
paid finally on the bond. In short the national bank- 
ing system is the climax of fraud and wrong, the 
fruitful source of corruption and betrayal of public 
trusts. The national bank and railroad corporations 
now control two branches of the federal government 
— the legislative and executive. The judicial branch 
of the government will be a pliant tool in their hands 
before 1884 ; for the new judges will be of their choos- 
ing — e. g. — Stanley Mathews! 

Ill— BOND- AND-NOTE-AND-MORTGAGE - IXFLATION- 
FRAUD. 

The people are taught by the capitaltsts through the 
bought-up newspaper press that "an Infiation of 



APPENDIX. 27 

greenbacks is a great evil." On the contrary, the exact 
trnth is, such an inflation operates as a bankrupt law 
to free the multitude of laborers and producing men 
from debt — a great public blessing. But there is, in- 
deed, an inflation that is a woeful curse to our coun- 
try — an inflation of bonds, notes and mortgages in the 
pockets of money-lenders. Such an intlatiou, has un- 
fortunately fallen upon our fair land to-day — a blight 
upon all legitimate business— the death aiid destruc- 
tion of all prosperity — a sweeping confiscation of the 
property of the maiiy and its seizure by the few. 

Money maybe made so plentiful (if issued by the 
government to the people in general as is now done 
to bondowners in particular) as to put all laboring 
and producing men practically out of debt, or it may 
be so contracted as to throw all this class hopelessly 
into debt. The rule will work both ways. We have 
seen its workings. Time was when money was abun- 
dant. Then agriculture and labor and production of 
all kinds was profitable. Then the laborer could, in a 
little while, from the profits of his labor pay for a 
comfortable home. But there came a change with 
contraction and resumption and an odious inflation of 
notes and mortgages took place. Pros])eiity now 
poured in upon -aioney-lenders and adversity over- 
whelmed laborers and producing men. The tramp 
was hatched out. Laws became oppressive and men 
were imprisoned for no crime but that of asking a 
crust of bread. A standing army of eleven thousand 
troops — nine regiments of infantry, one of cavalry 
and one of artillery was enlisted for five years in Iowa. 
"What for? To hasten the period of "stronger govern- 
ment," the foreclosure of mortgages and the transfer 
of the landed property from the hands of the many 
into the hands of the few — from the people to the 
money-lenders. 

When the greenbacks are "inflated" the people 
make large profits from agriculture — one or two crops 
often paying for a good farm — they make large profits 
from all sorts of productive labor. When greenbacks 
are contracted and bank bills, bonds, notes and mort- 
gages are inflated, the profits that before flowed to 
the proc^ucers and laborers now flow into the coffers 
of money-lenders. All that labor has accumulated 
the money-lenders seixe upon and pocket. It is only a 
question as to which kind of inflation shall prevail — 
inflation of money in the pockets of the people or in- 



23 APPhJSJDIX. 



flation of evidences of debt against the people in the 
pockets of usurers V Withdraw the money and the 
people are overburdened with debt. Says Mr. Jones, 
in his excellent book, "Money is Power :'" "Tlie effort 
of credit to fill the vacuum caused by the retirement 
of 1,000 million dollars from tlie business world, ex- 
plains the mystery of the Inirden of debt which has 
pressed so luird upon tlie country." Under an intlatiou 
of nearly 2,000 million dollars of currency in the 
pockets of tlie many at the close of the war, the peo- 
ple rejoiced ; now, under a tremendous inflation of 
26,000 million dollars bonds, notes and mortgages 
against the production of the United States in the 
pockets of the few, the people mourn. This estimate 
agrees with the statement presented in the work above 
named : 

National debt $ 2,000,000,000 

State, municipal and railroad 4,000,000,000 

Debts of 630,000 traders, manufactur- 
ers estimated by the monetary com- 

sion 13,000,000,000 

Banks, mining and other companies. . 7,000,000,000 

Total % 26,000,000, ©00 

Interest at only five per cent becomes an annual 
drain on our country's production of 1,30(3 million dol- 
lars, and at eight per cent of 2,080 million dollars, re- 
quiring the labor of ten millions of men at seventeen 
dollars and thirty-three and one-third cents per month, 
working all the time, from the beginning of the year 
to the end, in sunshine and storm, ro pay it— the labor 
of all the voters of tlie United States I If saved to 
our workers language would fail to express the hap- 
piness it would bring them ; but robbetl of it what 
misery, murders, suicides, snd untold horrors are left 
in its stead! 

Contraction of the currency at the dictation and 
command of foregn buUionists brought upon us this 
immense load of debt. The overthrow of the na- 
tional banking sj^stem — the wiping out of the bond 
swindle — the complete demonetization of both gold 
and silver — and the devotion of American law-makers 
to the interests of their own country and countrymen 
as they are now devoted to tlie interests of for> ign 
bullionists, would insure a supply of "lawful money" 
(greenbacks) that would free us from the burden. 
Bankers and money-lenders do not object to "'infla- 
tion ' if it means bonds, notes, mortgages and even 



APPENDIX. 29 

"money" in their pockets. Tliey only object to inflation 
in the pockets oC the people. Tliey feel precisely the 
same interest in th^ people that wolves do in sheep. 
In a late nnmlter of tlie iVew York Herald it is pro- 
claimed tliat "an inflation of. real money is as injuri- 
ous as an inflation of sham money." Bntbondowners 
do not object to an inflation of bank bills. How many 
millions of dollars have been added to bank note cir- 
culation since IST'.t ! Money must flow out to tiie peo- 
ple through the c'.uinnels of the banks and loan agen- 
cies not to be "injurious" in the estimation of m.oney- 
lenders. Any amount of money amons: the people, 
got afloat on "first mortgage loans, bringing large in- 
teresc to the lenders and enslaving tiie boiTowers is 
"liealthfnl." Otherwise any sort of money in the 
pockets of the oeople is "bad." Tjet the people be 
prostrate at the feet of the money power — as depend- 
ent on nsurers for money as a sucking calf is upon its 
dam fof milk and all is satisfactory to the enemy in 
his war against greenbacks and labor. The only 
meaning of the finance (luestion then is: Who shall 
govern America— the Rothchilds and their agents, or 
the American people? If the people do not control 
the paramount interest of finance they do not control 
the government. We cannot say ours is a government 
of the people, if the most important public interest is 
under the management and control of an irresponsi- 
ble few. Let us cease to depend on the few for 
money, and the many may hold and control what they 
produce by labor. Demonetize gold and silver and let 
legal tender paper flow out from the people to the peo- 
ple through the government of the people, and we 
have the highest Idessing that can be secured — inde- 
pendence. WIm should iiave the direction of the fin- 
ancial affairs of a farm, the owner of the farm or the 
irresponsible hired hands V Uncle Sam purposes con- 
trolling and directing in every respect the finances of 
his big firm. The lianks are doing practically the 
work of most important public officials in issuing and 
controlling the volume of the nation's currency — a 
most vital trust and without being in any way respon- 
sible to the public. They are only responsible to the 
bullion-owners of the Old World. Whoever ■ ictates 
the financial legi lation of a people is practically dic- 
tator of thit people. It is through their financial nol- 
icy alon-^ tliat ' itiou"-. are o^isIt jd — and theend of all 
enslavement io liuancial— th'j obtaining the products 



30 APPENDIX. 

of labor without giving the pioducers an equivalent 
— "wrenching from the hard liands of peasants" the 
fruits of their sweat and toil by force or by fraud. It 
is fraud we have to deal with now; but force i threat- 
ened and is not far oft— if the people by vigorous 
thinking, disinterested, acting for the public weal and 
independent voting, do not hurl tyrant capital from 
his throne and crown labor king. Everlasting chains 
and slav^ery are in reserve for the people of the Uni- 
ted States — lab r mangled, crushed, bleeding and torn 
— unless the engin that is now plunging rapidly on to- 
ward this frightful Ashtabula is immediately re- 
versed. Plainly then the question is: "8ha 1 the peo- 
ple control this government for the greatest good of 
the greatest number, or sh ill the money-lenders con- 
trol it and use it as an engine of robbery and oppres- 
sion of the masses — establishing on the ruins of the 
republic a stronger go vernment of money and bayonets 

THE CONCLUSION. 

This moment(.)Us political crisis is forced upon us by 
the money power (stronger than the slave power of 
old) involving all that was at issue in the revolution- 
ary struggle — the independence of America and the 
welfare of the toiling millions for many decades, and 
even centuries, to come. Let us know no North, no 
South, no East, no West, but one united common- 
M'ealth, the toilers i f all sections, of every color and 
race, our beloved countrymen, and stand once more als 
our fathers si od, for the "inalinable rights of man," 
for the preservation of popular libeity and equality 
before it is too late, l)efore the nation has passed be- 
yond the reach of the patriot arm to save. 

"VVhfit cbiistitutt's a State? 
Not high raised baltlemeut and labored monnd 

Thick wall and moated gate — 
Not cities proud with t-pires and turrets er owned; 

Not bajs and broad-armed ports 
Where laughing at the storm rich navies ride; 

Not starred and spangled courts 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride 

No; MEN, high minded men, 
With powers as far above dull brutes endued 

In forest break and den 
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude — 

Men who their duties know 
And know their rights and knowing dare maintais 

Prevent the long-aimed blow 
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chaia™ 

These constitute a state 
And sovereign law that state's collected will 

O'er thrones acd globes elate 
Sit9 eiupresB crowning good, repret'siug ill.' 



PART II.— THE TRIUMPH OF LABOR— 
A GLANCE FROM 1876 TO 1976. 



A CENTENNIAL LECTURE WRITTEN IN 1 876. 



1870 finds our country overwh' Imed with debt — im- 
poverished by bad legislation — the government cor- 
rupt, and a dread apprehension on the minds of the 
people of further betrayal by ofiicials in high places. 
But the people are true — the love of liberty is not 
dead — is not extin-uislied in the minds of the labor- 
ers of our country. The reaction towards aristocracy 
and despotism, that has taken place, will be but tem- 
porary. 

"Freedom's battle once begun 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire o son, 
T ough often baffled 's ever won." 

The battle begun by our fathers for human equality 
will continue. Let me, then, recount the real glories 
of to-day and anticipate the good in store for us, and 
the world that the coming century will bring. 

One hundred years ago who could anticipate the 
progress of to-day ? The progress of the century has 
been mainly in the direction of mechanical inventions. 
Old times produced greater poets; greater orators; 
greater painters; greater sculptors; greater architects 
--but in the direction of labor-saving inventions, the 
century has leaped forward a thousand years— has 
eclipsed all the past. Thus man has grown to be a 
giant in physical strength — and the world must soon 
be subdued, ;md til rough places msd'^ sinuoMi— the 
hills brought low. Soon there will be no desert pla- 
ces — no l).irren regions. iNor is this imaginary, Sa- 
Uarah is an ancient sea-bottom and rich — wanting 
only wat -r to be extremely fertile. By boring a few 
hundrc.I " )et in dep.h, it is said, we strike abundanca 



32 APPENDIX, 

of water below the sea level— filtered into and through 
porous rocks — and tlie average cosl of an artesian 
well that raises four Imndrf d gallons of water per min- 
ute is fifteen hundred doUais. Tn such a climate as 
that of l^orthern Africa, where two cr(.ps a year may 
be produced — a land of dates and figs and olives — by 
turning the money expended in guns and munitions 
of war and feeding and clothing tlie tliree millions of 
European soldiers in arms to day. and tlieir labor, 
also, in the direction of subduing the desert — how 
long before it woulrl be reclaimed and grand cities be 
seen where all was once desolation and drifting sands 
— and Sahara!) smile and blossom as tlie lose and 
fields of Iniglit grain cover the plains from Morocco 
to Soudan ? There is not a spot of earth but will one 
day afford a happy dwelling place for man, while the 
ocean itself will be crowded wilh floating palaces, the 
homes of mjriad sons and daughters of the sea. Man 
will be master of the pliysical elements. He will not 
longer look up to the clouds for rain and sit trembling 
fearful of drouth and famine. Machinery will water 
the farms— the moisture will be lifted from below. 
Man will be supreme on earth and may proclaim 

"I am monarch of all I survey. 
I have tamed the lightning; the deep is obedient to 
me: earth serves me; JSature bows before me and 
pours out her treasures at my feet unfailingly." 

The physical world is an exact mirror of the world 
of mind. Observe the wilderness of nalure — the bar- 
ren deserts unreclaimed, and you see a true picture of 
the human mind that fas the world shall be redeemed 
to culture and lieautiful gardens bloom where now 
thorns and briars only grow) shall also put on her gar- 
ments of love — and selfish cease to prey upon the 
weak, as the lion upon the lamb — but we may hope 
for the fulfillment of the prophesy that the lion and 
lamb shall lie down together and a little child shall 
lead them. I want to believe that the coming cen- 
tury will see selfishness dethroned, 

I do not expect tliat greater inventions than steam 
navigation and the magnetic telegraph will ever be 
made, for there evidently is a limit in the dii-ection of 
great inventions. During the next hundred years, 
what is already found out and is now rudely put in 
optTatiou, will l)e so perfected that the resources of 
the eartli will be brought forth for the use of men 
with far less physical labor than now — the unification 



APPENDIX. 35 

of tlie vvoiid realized — no important city or place oil 
eartii renaiining isolated— all joined together by rail- 
roads and telegraphs — mankind one family of love — 
Africa redeemed— the whistle of the locomotive heard' 
on the shores of Lake Nyanza— manners, ciistomsnnci 
institutions of all nations conformed to the Christian 
law of love — and the people have gained the mastery 
over all governments— a general disarmament be' 
bi'ought about — all disputes between nations settled 
by a world's conijress— a union of all effected — the 
proudest banner that shall wave from the dome of the ■ 
centennial building at Philadelphia — the city of broth- 
erly love — in the year IHTG, will be, I trust, the flag of 
the United States of the Would. 

It is the idea of the eijuality of men that is working' 
in modern history for tlip nmancipation of labor and 
the redemption of the world from the domination of 
kings, of wealth and of priestly power. May we not 
anticipate the overthrow of all kingly governments 
in Europe ere the next centennial '? There will then 
be a disbandraent of her armies. The people, entirely 
free, will vote to maintain no standing armies. The 
word "reciprocity" will be emblazoned on the world's 
banner — "Do unto all as we would have them do unto 
us." Peace is to the interest of the people — the few 
reap advantage from wars. The few who reaped 
material advantage from the war of '61 are our mil- 
lionaires of to-day, who send agents to congress to con- 
trol legislation by bribery and corruption. The peo- 
ple enlightened will never go to war. The republics 
of Greece and Kome were warlike; the free bands 
of Indians inhabiting America were engaged in con- 
tinual wars; yet I mainthin that no enlightened Chris- 
tian people will engage in aggressive war. As soon 
as the fundamental Christian law "Love thy fellow- 
man as thyself" has been crystalized in the customs, 
laws and institutions and governments of all Christian 
nations, wars must cease. This idea of the supremacy 
of the law of love was not fully accepted among even 
the most highly cultured of the nations of old; but 
all European nations now believe it tobethebounden 
duty of ma i in his relations to his fellow-man, to en- 
tertain the same affection for him as for himself^ 
Tiiough this is universally admitted by Christian peo- 
ples, yet the idea has not been crystalized in institu- 
tions, laws, and governments very generally; but, on. 

3* 



34 APPhhJDIX. 

tl\e contrary, the corner ^tone of all seems lobe 5e7^s^- 
ness. It is true, corporations have been instituted for 
.benevolent purposes and for nnitiuil aid. Hospitals 
i'or foundlings and for orphans liaAe bem tstablishtd 
by these corporations and by individuals— sisters of 
charity sent to nurse the sick — and there aie Frfe Ma- 
son and Odd Fellow fraternities. ]S(.\v we are be- 
ginning to have state asylums for the blind, ihe deaf, 
the insane, etc, — and we have Soldiers' Orphans' 
Ho;aes supported by the state. But the great aavance 
of 1 lie coming century will be in this diiection. All 
destitute and orphan children will be gathered into the 
arms of the loving commonwealth. The youth must 
be cared for and properly educated belore crime can 
Tje put an end to. As long as the cities are full of lit- 
tle ragged street Arabs sleeping in gcods-boxes by 
night and running uncontrolled by day, under no 
guardianship of fatlierly hands — with no wholesome 
food to eat; no good books to read; no schoolmasters 
to instruct them— just so long will the prisons be 
crowded wiih criminals. May we not hope that be- 
fore the next centennial pleasant homes will be pro- 
vided for all destitute and orphan children V 

Go with me to a beautiful village in Iowa in the 
year 1976. This town belongs to men who have been 
■convicted of crime, and are here put under guardian- 
■chip, as if they were children — and are given work 
to do and wages for doing it. They work a part of 
the day and another part they devote to mental cult- 
ure. The state aims only to build np those men into 
-good citizens worthy of "freedom, and resorts to kindly 
means for the acomplishment of this purpose. This 
penitentiary is a reform school, nor are the convicts 
-suojected to any harsh usiige. They are, it is true, 
•deprived of liberty, dear to every man, are declared 
■"minors in law" and are kept under restraint; but 
they are surrounded by elevating and reformatory in- 
flnences. It is the aini of the state to teach them self- 
respect. They are, therefore, shown the utmost kind- 
ness. Society is thus protected and the vicious class 
given honorable employment and are compelled to 
<earn their living by honest labor. Tin re is no discom- 
fort here. The inmates of this reform institution con- 
verse Avith each other and are as free as hired laborers 
to-day. Indeed tiiis village is an asylum for the mor- 
ally weak, where they resort to he strengthened— a re- 
treat, a home. Punishments have been abolished. 



APPENDIX. 35 

The state I claim has no right to punish men for 
crime; but only the right to bring them under guar- 
dianship and restraint; the right to settle them in < ne 
spot, depriving them of the liberty of emigralion and 
there giving them remunerative employment and 
teachers and books and hope and courage and ambition 
and public spirit. 

The "signs of the times" point, also, to the speedy 
overthrow, even in Great 13ritiain, of that accursed 
institution, land monopoly, tlie most unjust and op- 
pressive monopoly that lias descended to us from the 
barl)arous age. It is the esstntial evil. Remove this 
and all other forms of oppiession die. Conceive of a 
State in which no man is allowed, by the laws or cus- 
toms or institutions of society, to own more land than 
a convenient homestead, more than will yield him 
subsistence by being carefully tilled by his own hands, 
more than, say forty, eighty or one hundred and sixty 
acres of productive land; and you at once have before 
your mind a society of equals, a society in which pov- 
erty is unknown, in which luxury is unknown and its 
consequent immorality and en^-vation of mind and 
body, a hardy race of freedom-loving men and women 
as in Switzerland. 

What obstacles are in the way of the removal of this 
monopoly to-day ? Xone whatever. It is altogether 
in the hands of the state. It is a monopoly sustained 
only by law, and that, too, unjust\-a.w . It is sustained 
througli no principle of riglit, l)ut only by unrighteous- 
ness and Ijarbarity. These beautiful plains are the 
common inheritance of all. Through untold ages the 
soil has been accumulating its productiveness for the 
benefit of man. This inheritance belongs to all alike, 
as the water and the air. Embrace, (), Commonwealth, 
in thy protecting arms these lands as homesteads for 
thy children! Save tliem from being seized upon by 
robbers, as in Europel 

John Stuart Mill says: "When the sacredness of 
property is talked of it should always be remembered 
that this sacredness does not belong in the same de- 
gree to landed property. No man made the land; it is 
the original inheritance of all the species. * * If the 
State is at liberty to treat the possessors of land as 
public functionaries, it is only going one step further 
to say it is at liberty to discard them. The claim of 
the land owners is altogether subordinate to the gen- 
eral policy of the State. The principle of property 



36 APPENDIX. 

gives them no rigkt to the land; but only right to com- 
pensation for whatever portion of i heir interest in the 
land it may he the policy of the State to deprive them 
of." 

He lurthersays : "War among nations and discord 
among individuals grow witli the growtli of monoi)o- 
ly in land. The more perfect its consolidation the 
greater must be the ineciualities of society, and the' 
more must those wlio labor be made to suffer in the. 
distribution between tlie people and the State." 

The time will come, and that speedily, I sincerely 
hope and trust, when the laws will not be partial — 
will not confer upon men the license to seize upon and 
hold wiiat is not theirs by natural right. "Land," as 
Mill says, "is the original inheritance of the whole 
species." By what right may a few seize upon this 
inheritance of all ? By the ancient law of barbarity — 
the law of force. This law must be done away. 
Eight must rule. The natural rights of man, must 
be enforoed by the laws. Let the few hold their mil- 
lions of gold and silver, and countless diamonds and 
rubies and pearls. We want none of these. They are 
baubles — play-things for children. But let these rich 
people own no more land than other men; take noth- 
ing from thera, but pay them for their surplus land 
in money — as the people before the Rel)ellion would 
have been willing to pay the slave-lords for their 
slaves. Yet it Is a serious question whetlier it is 
just to pay a man for that which he has no right to. 
And what right had the slave-master to his slave?— 
and what right has any man to a monopoly of the 
land ? 

Can human law give one a right to what is not his 
by divine law V The vast mine of wealth opened to 
the w^crld by machinery belongs to all mankind. 
The advantages and benefits of all inventions should 
be made general — should shorten the hours of labor 
for every man, woman and child, until the amount 
of exertion necessary for subsistance would be but 
slight. The strife among men then \v ill be not for 
wealth, but for intellectual grandeur; for building up 
the Angelic in man; for calling out the immortal 
beauties of mind and skill. The reward fame— re- 
nown. T e grandest man will be he who has devel- 
op3d the grandest soul; the loftiest mind; the noblest 
heart— wh) has devised the greatest good for his 
neighbors— instituted the best schools— the most com- 



APPENDIX. 37 

fortable homes for orphuns and widows, and the aged 
and the helpless — has been tlie greatest benefactor of 
his race. This, then, is the problem for legislation to 
solve: How may the surplus wealth of the earth, 
produced in sucli abundauce by human skill and in- 
Tentions, be prevented from being taken possession of 
l)y the few — how may it be distributed through the 
arteries of society for the beniflt of all? This prob- 
lem will, I trust, be solved before the centennial of 
197f5. Millions will not then be calling for employ- 
ment and bread. All men will belong to the laboring 
class then. The class that now lives above manual 
lal)or will be abolished. Every man will be compelled 
to earn his living who is physically able. That there 
is a fixed purpose in the minds of the producers to 
Tiring about this reform is manifest from the follow- 
ing article of the platform adopted by the farmers 
and working men in convention at Indianapolis, In- 
diana, June 10, 1874. They say: 

"We liold that all able-bodied, intelligent persons 
should contribute to the common stock, by useful in- 
dustry, a sum or quantity equal to their own support, 
and legislation should tend, as far as possible, to the 
equitable distributation of surplus products." 

Manufactories are public servants; but under the 
present system of monopolies the servant is the mas- 
ter. A mill is built with private capital. The miller, 
for sixty pounds of wheat, gives thirty pounds of 
floui\ keeping one-half the weight of the grain. 
Would any one contend that it were good policy to al- 
low horses and oxen, sheep and hogs to pasture on the 
grain-fields? How much would be trampled under 
foot and wasted if the farmer did not reap and thresh 
his grain and give to each of his dumb servants a due 
portion; but let them range at will through the fields. 
The mills, factories, railroads,etc., are public servants, 
just as horses and cattle are for the service of men. 
But the people do not as yet say what the mills, fac- 
tories, railroads, etc., shall be fed; but literally turn 
them out loose into their fields to destroy, waste and 
trample down the grain, having gorged themselves un- 
til their sides are swollen out to an undue bigness. 

Co-operation is the remedy — each individual con- 
tributing a small portion to a general fund, and this 
general fund be the feeder, or moving force of all 
manufacturing, mining, banking, commercial, trans- 
portation, and all other interests now controlled by 



38 APPENDIX. 

private capital. How will this fund be raised? In 
just the same manner as the school fund is raised. A 
tax is levied upon the property of a neighborhood to 
build a school house. In like nuinner let a tax be 
levied to build mills, factuvies, etc. (Already rail- 
roads are built in this way; but the people who build 
them do noi own or control them, but give them a 
bonus to private corporations for private profit.) Take 
(for example) four townships embracing a section of 
country twelve miles square and contrining 144 square 
miles. Each square mile (if there was no waste land) 
might include eight farms of eighty acres each or 
1,152 farms in all. Each farm paying twenty dollars 
tax would give a fund of §23,040, which would build a 
good tlouring mill, or a woolen manufactory; oi- a 
plow and machine shop; or a grain elevator; or a pork- 
packing e.'-tablishment. One hundred dollars tax on 
on each eighty in a section of twelve luiles square 
would build all these and (I would add) a narrow 
guage railroad besides across the section. 

It is by individuals and private corporations con- 
trolling "tnese necessary interests that wealth concen- 
trates in the hands of the few, and millionaires are 
evolved among us and swim in the midst of Ameri- 
can society, as did the prehistoric monster reptiles 
among the smaller fishes, devouring them at pleasure. 
But if the state or people become the master or owner 
of all public establishments, railroads.etc, the wealth 
will remain with the laboring classes that produce it, 
and equality be preserved. All are created equal, and 
that equality should be enfoj'ced and maintained. A% 
should work, and all should enjoy the fruits of their 
labor. Machinery will have become such a vast help 
in producing sufficient for all, that each man will 
need to labor but a small part of 1ms time. Three 
hours will be a day's work. Books and study and 
mental culture, and " to do good " the chief end and 
aim and religion -dnd ambition of universal man. All 
nature will be subject to man, and man subject to the 
law of God. The community will enforce this law. 
The few that would seize upon and hold the surplus 
wealth of the world by force — that is, by what is 
termed " legal right" — the same right by which the 
slave-lords held their four millions of blacks ia bond- 
age, these few will have to allow the commonwealtli 
to hold what justly belongs to the commonwealth — 
the surplus products of labor — will have to conform 



APPENDIX. 39 

to the law of God, unjust " legal right" being taken 
away, as has been the right to hold slaves in our 
country. 

Are not private corporations more Injurious than 
beneficial to th\? public? Are not all European na- 
tions to-day combatting the giant corporation known 
as the church? Has it not bound in fetters of iron 
and trodden down the weak for a thousand years? It 
was instituted for a benevolent purpose — to save men 
from sin— to do the highest and holiest work. If the 
church, as a political corporation, has proven the 
greatest enemy of men, why should not the people 
look with distrust upon all close corporations that 
they cannot directly control? Railroad, insurance, 
and banking corporations exercise vast influence for 
evil. The soul object of their management is the ac- 
cumulation of wealth — not the public good — and the 
public suffers in proportion, as they are uncontrolled 
by legislation; and those corporations exert vast in- 
fluence over legislation. For instance, we adopted 
England's money-order system. Why, have we not 
adopted her system of Postal Savings Banks? Pi'esi- 
dent Grant advised Congress to adopt this other ex- 
cellent reform; but the banking corporations of our 
country said " No. " Money being the object of those 
corporations, they favor only tliat legsislation that 
pours money into their coffers. They know nothing 
but venality; they lo')k not beyond "the boundary of 
their own circle, or " ring." The corporation becomes 
a petty state, and claims all the patriotism of those 
whose monied interests are bound up in it — all out- 
side interests are alien. All corporations are in their 
very nature anti-democratic. Monopolies flourish 
best under arbitary goverr^rients. There is, then, a 
constant tendency to autocracy in a countrj^ cursed as 
ours is by the existence of sO many monied corpora- 
tions. They are giant powers, and a constant menace 
to freedom, dangerous in proportion to their wealth. 

The public interest demands that Banking. Insur- 
ance, and Railroad corporations, land monopoly, ar.d 
manufacturing monopolies be suppressed, and the 
government assume control of these interests, and that" 
the kinds of property that money shall represent and 
be exchangable for, be particularly defined, limited ancl 
circumscribed by legislative enactments. Then mon- 
ey becomes a harmless acquisition. Then might eve- 
ery man have and hold all the money he may. The 



40 APPENDIX. 

public has reason to complain of the laws giving to 
the nionied class dangerous niouopolies, and (special- 
ly the nionopuly of t'uniisliiug exchauge to the coun- 
try. The fountain from Avhich all exchangj^ sliould 
flow and directly to the people, is the government. 
Then if interest be paid the State for the use of mon- 
ey, it becomes a government tax, lessening the tax on 
otiier property, and benefitting everybody— instead of 
building up a hateful, privileged class of respectable 
paupers, living without labor, through usury— a mo- 
nopoly inherited from the Pjuent Britain, along with 
slavery, and that must, like slavery, be got I'id of — 
and speedily — for it is fast hurrying the nation into 
bankdruptcy. 

Think not that America is destined to follow the 
footsteps of Europe. She will make a path for her- 
self. Tlusnew^ world was prepared by Providence as 
the garden of the Lord in which new and l)etter ideas 
are to germinate and grow, and be carried from this 
new land and transplanted in the old. What pro- 
duced the French Ilevolution in the days of Washing- 
ton? American ideas. I do not say that our best 
ideas of government are native of this soil. 1 know 
whence our freedom has arisen. I know who is the au- 
thor of our liberty. That one germ idea— equality of 
men— is traced rightfully back to the Friend of the 
Poor — the denouncer of the rich, but His thought could 
not work in the old w. rid as in the new,the leven of gen- 
tleness and love being there neutralized by antagonistic 
institutions — arbitrary governments and corporations 
— kings, lords and designing priests. Old woj-ld cus- 
toms and institutions take root here and grow for a 
time and then wither. The climate is not suited to 
tbem. the new world has never known anything but 
freedom. The old world customs belong to dei)otism. 
The new world will Ijeget its own governments, cus- 
toms, institutions; but top off all will be freedom. 
There is no doubt of this. Private and corporate 
wealth may array itself against liberty— then private 
and corporate wealth must go to the wall, until the com- 
monwealth only shall survive. Thus will equality be 
realized the subordination of riches to tlie general 
goodjthe suppression of class distinctions. I look for the 
time to come in America when no man will build a cost- 
lier house than his neiglil )or, the grand works of art and 
architecture will be public, like the Pantheon. There 
>vill then be uniformity uf hours of labor and recrea- 



APPENDIX. 41 

tion, g3n3ral c^mforfc, but no private \v3iltb, th3 
saai3 advantages b3ing open to all, schools free, the- 
atrical entertainments free (as inacient Athens), lect- 
ures free, librairies free. There will be no "legal" 
methods of getting suddenly rich, then; for all such 
methods, though tolerated now, as humau slavery 
was a few years ago, are, like human slavery, wrong — 
yea, wicked. D.) you not see that it is wrong for me 
to seize upon and appropriate to my own use the pro- 
ceeds of others' labor, gathering around me a moun- 
tain of the surplus products Of industry, strpping to 
'destitutiou the producers of those products, whether 
I do thi5 by the use of the slave ivldp, or by any other 
means? My own weak arm can- prodnce little. 
Why must others serve me, toil and sweat for me, 
pour out the fruits of their toil at my feet until I 
have beciim^ a milliouaire? Wliat magnetic power 
is there in uiy physical structure to attract to me all 
this surplus wealth, a-5 the water flows to the sea? I 
am ouly a man, nor ha-sGod made me in any respect 
dissimilar to other men. It is the unjust laws that 
favor me, God gave me my m'lnhood. The laws of 
my ccuucry regard not Godgiven manhood; they 
favor only loealth. Tlie laws cause Avealth to attract 
to itself wealt'i by giving the wealthy certain monop- 
olies, Wealth being the product of labor and mech- 
anical skill, is of slow growth naturally. It comes 
not suddenly to the world. The ratio of annual in- 
crease of wealth in the United States is little more 
than three per cent; .$7,033,000,030 the average annuitl 
product, divided by 4o,0J0,O00 inhabitants gives $155 
per capita— -;)r $1,030 for each adult male citizen. So, 
do you not see that there is no such thing as justly 
acquiring sudden wealth. The John Jacob Astors of 
the world have got their great wealth mainly by 
'■robbing widows' houses." 

This contest for th i rights of man will continue 
until the cause of the people completely triumph. It 
is the same struggle as of 177B, between our fathers 
and the king and the lords of England, and as of 1640 
in England betvveen the R)undhead md tne Caval- 
ier— the" friction of advancing civilization, the idea 
of equality going forward to its realization. We 
may truly say the same to-day tliat McCauley said in 
the British parliament years ago: "At this very 
moment,"he said," we everywhere see society outgrow 
iug our institutions. * * * Here we see the bar- 



42 APPENDIX. 

barisDi of the 13th century coupled with the civiliza- 
tion of the 19th, aiKl we see, too, that this barliarism 
belongs to the government ai,ul the civilization to the 
people. Then, I say, that this incongruous state of 
things cannot continue, and if we do not terminate it 
with wisdom ere long, we shall find it ended with 
violence." 

The barbarism that environs us is the institutions 
brought over from England that are still cumbering 
the ground here, banking institutiojis, insurance 
institutions, individual capital employing labor ex- 
tensively, land monopoly, and all sorts of private 
monied corporations, oiganized and conducted on sel- 
fish prirciples, and building up the power and wealth 
of the few at the expense of the many. Those who 
have power in their hands, as all history shows, never 
give it up voluntarily. It must be wrenched from 
them. And the monopolies which the ages have 
handed down through the centuries of the tyrannous, 
monarchial, aristocratic past,and that are now held by 
the few to the detriment of the many, must be put 
down by the same power that has overcome mon- 
archy; suppressed aristocracy; blotted out African 
slavery and lifted up the laboring classes here, the 
power of the popular will. Concentrated capital 
and monopolies wil/ soon become so burdensome that 
they must be thrown down by universal consent. A 
few giant firms ere long will transact all the business, 
and tens of thousands of buildings heretofore occu- 
pied by small shop-keepers, grocers, merchants, etc. 
will stand vacant. The lands will soon be monopo- 
lized by a few here as in Europe—all manufacturing 
will be done by a few great capitalists; the pork-pack- 
ing of the northwest by two or three gigantic firms 
of Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati, under the con- 
trol of European capitalists, as the carrying trade of 
the whole nation is now principally under the control 
of three great, swollen barnacles— Gould, Scott and 
Vanderbilt. Thus will all business be controlled by 
a syndicate of money kings, with headquarters in 
London, and become such a monopoly that producers 
and consumers cannot endure it, and they will find re- 
lief in co-aperative stores, co-operative factories, 
etc.. and the people of America will be forced, of ne- 
cessity, to take governmental control of all transpor- 
tation interests, as of the mails, and goods be for- 
warded, like letters stamped, so muoli per pound or 



APPENDIX. 45 

cwt. The people, acting individually, cannot com- 
pete with monopolies. Monopolies will conquer the 
masses in detail unless the masses concentrate their 
power and enforce their will through the laws. We 
have about come upon a period in the world's history 
when there is no alternative left us but the inaugura- 
tion of an absolute control by the people, through 
legislation, of all interests— a complete crystalization 
of the popular will in perfected institutions. "Asso- 
ciations" of all kinds are combined now against the 
masses, and arbitrarily levy tax for support, more ab- 
solute in their tyranny than was Charles I. even. The 
masses must combine in a gigantic union with arti- 
cles of association which shall be the fundamental 
constitutions of State and National governments, in- 
stituted for the common welfare alone. 

Labor, indeed, is master of the situation. The toil- 
ers aie tlie ninety and {nine. They make and run all 
the machinery — build and operate all the railroads.. 
They build all forts, and man them ; they manufac- 
ture all guns and implements of war, and use them \ 
Whose muscular arms load and fire the cannons ? 
Whose sinewy hands grasp the swords and muskets? 
Of what class of society was that grand army of 
Grant and Sherman composed that passed in review 
before President Johnson at Washington in 1865 ? 
and of Lee and Johnson that was disbanded and sent 
home? Toilers, and toilers alone! They are the alii 
in all. They are the lords and gods of this great 
world. Whenever the people aregready the great 
change will come. There will be no war ; for there 
will be nobody to fight against combined labor. You 
cannot set even the laboring men of England to fight 
against the laboring men of the United States. The 
people will go to war no more. The only way possi- 
ble for capital to conquer labor (and that is no longer 
possible) were to set the laborers fighting one anoth- 
er, as the whites have the Indians ever. Thus the 
toilers of the north and the toilers of the south were 
forced by party leaders in 1861 into a war that the peo- 
ple would never have gone into of their own voice 
and choice. Wars will cease when the people rule^ 
The people have never ruled yet ; but they soon will. 
A solid South and a solid North can never be set shoot- 
ing each other again. Labor will take care of itself. 
Capitalists would now shape the results of the war of 
'61, so that instead of having been, as we supposed, the 



44 APPENDIX. 

triumph of free labor over slave labor, it ■would prove 
to have been the triumph of AVall street and Lom- 
bard street capiialists over the agriculturalists, manu- 
facturers and laborers of ]S^ortn America. Instead 
of emancipating labor, and giving freedom to four 
millions of slaves, it would prove to have enslaved 
forty millions of freemen, unless the present policy 
of gold resumption be given up. But this will end. 
The reaction will come — and in spite of a venal and 
corrupt press— and the gigantic power of monied mo- 
nopolies and corporations the people will rule. Labor 
-will soon be mastei. What is unbearable will not be 
l)orne — and the evils that are now upon us are unbear- 
able. A national conventioii to revise the federal 
eonstitntion will soon be demanded. It loill assemble ; 
and it will never adjourn until the government is 
irougJit into harmony with the changed condition 
of things, and the flag made the emblem of freedom 
and equality. 

When this is accomplished, instead of the laws be- 
ing made in the interest of selfishness, tliey will en- 
force the golden rule ; and wnen this is done, the 
Kingdom of God is established on the earth. This is 
all that 1 pray for ; this is all 1 contend for : this is 
what I wouiti die for. It is the establishment of such 
a community of love that the angels foresaw Avhen 
they proclaimed peace on earth good will towards 
-men. This is the Apocalyptic New Jerusalem that 
was revealed to the banished saint on the Isle of Pat- 
mos "descending from God out of heaven ;" the "new 
earth" when the "first earth had passed away" and 
"God should dwell with men and be their God and 
i:hey should be His people." This glorious Kingdom 
of God is rapidly descending upon our earth — 1976 
•will l)ehold it. The grand progress of mind during 
the last century is the harbinger of the coming day. 
Man has nearly ceased to be a savage. He is almost 
ripe — and beautiful will be the cluster upon tAie vine 
of love. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson says : "The idea which now 
begins to agitate society, has a wider scope than our 
daily employments — oiir households and the institu- 
tions of property. We are to revise the whole of our 
social structure — the state, the school, religion, mar- 
riage, trade, science, and explore the foundation of 
our nature. What is man born for but to be a reform- 
er — a re-maker of what man has made — a renouncer 



APPENDIX. 45. 

of lies — a restorer of truth and good, imitating the 
great nature wliich embosoms us all, and which sleeps 
no moment on an old past; but every hour repairs 
herself, yielding us every morning a new day, and 
with every pulsation a new life. Let him remove ev- 
erything which is not true to liim. * * There 
will dawn ere long on our p litics, on our modes of 
living, a nobler morniiio in the sentiment of love. 
Our age and history of these thousand years has not 
been the history of kindness : but of selfishness. Our 
distrust is very expensive. The money spent for 
courts and prisons is ill-laid out. We make by dis- 
trust the tliief, the burglar, and incendiary, and by our 
court and jail we keep him so. An acceptanoe of the 
sentini'^nt of love throughout Cliristendom for a sea- 
son, would bring the felon and outcast to our side in 
tears, with the devotion of liis faculties to our serv- 
ice. See this wide society of laboring men and wo- 
men. We allow ourselves to be served by them ; we 
live apart from them and meet them on the street 
without a salule. We do not greet their talents, nor 
rejoice in their good fortnne, nor foster their hopes, 
nor in the assembly of the people vote fer what is 
dear to theii Thus we enact the part of the selfish 
noble and king to the world's foundation. * * 

;j. Let our affections flow out to onr fellows ; it 
would operate in a day the greatest of all revolutions. 
The state must consider the poor nan and all 
voices must speak for him. every child born 
must have a just chance (avith work) for his 

BREAD." 

And James Freeman Clarke says : "The time will 
come at last — long foretold by prophet and sybil, long 
retarded by unbelief and formalism — when wars shall 
cease, and the reign of just laws take the place of 
force in the great federation of mankind. * * 
Christ will at last become in reality the Prince of 
Peace, putting and end to war between nations, war 
between classes in society, war between criminals 
and the state. In trade, instead of competition, we 
shall have co-operation, and all industry will receive 
its just recompence." 



PART III.— THE RIGHTS OF LABOR. 



<TAKEN FROM A BOOK OF THE AUTHOR'S OF THE ABOVE TITLE PRIN- 
TED IN 1875.) 



What progress the grand principles of the new 
PARTY, that as yet lias won no conciuests, but is one 
day to rule America and tlie world, have made among 
the tliinking men of our age and country ! That par- 
ty is the Party of I-alior— and the impending conflict 
is between labor and capital. 

There is nothing more plainly discernable than the 
coming revolution in favor of the lights of the la- 
boring man, or, I should say, the rights of man ; for 
the rights of labor and the rights of man are identi- 
cal. ]]y and through labor come subsistence and all 
wealth— or as President (irant expresses it in his mes- 
sage of December, 1874, "the working man must, af- 
ter all, produce the wealth." No man is exempt from 
the natural obligation to earn his living by the sweat 
of his face. It is true many men do live by the sweat 
of other men's faces, but tliis is not as it shouhl be. 
All able-bodied men should earn their own living by 
their own labor ; ami every artificial advantage given 
to one man over another by the unjust laws, should 
be removed, and all men left exnctly upon the same 
plane of equality. This must come about as soon as 
despotic government is broken up, Mud the people uni- 
versally govern. The rights of individuals cannot be 
protected until the world has freed itself from the 
domination of wealth. 

The struggle of the common people for their ina- 
lienable rights is not the battle of a day, but of cen- 
turies. Tt goes on with the progress of enlighten- 
ment. The victory will l)e won when the divinity of 
liunumity has been completely recognized in tlu^ uni- 
versal thought of men. The" foolish homage so long 
given to Avealth will then be replaced by homage to 
manhood. 

" A man's a inau for a' that," 



APPENDIX. 4f 

is the germ-idea of civilization — the corner stone of 
the temple of freedom. 

The most powerful agents are the most subtile. 
Ideas ar- irresistible. When our fathers announced 
" We liold these truths to be self-evident that all men 
are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator 
with tlie inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness," the irrepressible conflict be- 
tween freedom and slavery began in the new world. 
The poor black man was held under no worse servi- 
tude than the poor white is held to-day. 

The poor man has ever been a slave to the rich. 
Great tlie friction this onward moving idea was des- 
tined to encounter. Blood must flow like water; but 
the idea must move on and on ; and just so sure as 
the world is destined to emerge from darkness into 
light, from barbarism into civilization, equality mivst 
come. 

"Still it moves" — the pondrous world still rolls upon 
its axis, and the truths of God advance. The mills of 
ths gods are slowly grinding out the inevitable. In 
the atmosphere of America— clear as the mountain 
atmosphere of Colorado — the bright dome of the tem- 
ple of freedom stands out against the horizon as if 
but a little way off. But before the people shall enter 
that temple "eqitaV dreadful conflicts must even yet 
be had. The hosts of slavery must be further over- 
come—they must be routed and driven from the very 
"last ditch." Not an inch of ground will the enemy 
yield except it be taken from him by mighty force. 

When announced "all are created equal." our people 
were, for more than a hundred years, destined to wan- 
der in tlie wilderness ere this ideal could be replaced 
by the real. The war of Revolution snuffed out the 
'•king" idea, and that of a "tifled nobility." Slowly 
and surely have the people been advancing. Th^> pub- 
lic conscience could no longer tolerate the flaunting 
lie of chattel slavery written upon our escutcheon. 
That devil "went out hard," but it had to go, because 
our fathers had declared for human equality. 

J3ut another step forward will soon be taken by the 
American nation — another step towards the full real- 
ization of the idea of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. The storm-cloud is gathering. One even now 
may behold it, "larger than a man's hand." Millions of 
earnest men and women in this United States, North 
and South, are united as one in the determination tlia, 



48 APPhNDJX. 

the poor ni;ni sli;ill linve his riplit?— Iluit i]ite]]ig(iic(? 
and iiiiiiibers; inul not "c.ipitar' pliall iiile tie nation. 

•'Chattel slavery," they assert, "has b( e n iil (lislifd - 
but the rights and relations of lahcr stand just A\here 
they did before the emaucipation, in rfepttt to the di- 
visions of its products. 'J'he difference lies only in 
the methods of abstiactiug the results and ccnccntra- 
them in tlie hands of a few capitalists. Capital is now 
the master and dictates the ternis. ard thi:s all labor 
ers are practically placed in the Siime condition as the 
slave before the emancipation," 

Strong language indeed, and l)ig with meaning. 
Thus spoke the farmers and workingmen of Indiana 
in State Convention, assembled at Indianapolis, on 
the loth day of June, 1874 : 

"We need only point," they say, "to the fact that in 
this benilicent country of unlimited resources, with 
the land annually groaning beneath the i rcducts of 
human effort, the mass of the people have no supply 
beyond their daily wants, and are compelled, from un- 
just conditions, in sickness or misfortune, to become 
paupers. Pauperism and crime are the perplexing 
questions of all modern statesmanship, and it is with 
these we have to deal. How far thet^e evils are con- 
nected with the abuses inllicted on labor, a superficial 
statesmanship seems not to perceive." 

They point out as the instrumentality by which 
these wrongs are inflicted : 

"First — Banking and monied monopolies, by which, 
through ruinous rates of interest, the products of hu: 
man lalior are concentrated into tlie liands of non- 
producers. This is the great central source of these 
wrongs, in and through which all other monopolies 
exist and operate. 

"Second— Consolidated railroads and other transit 
monopolies, wherebj all iiulustries are taxed to the 
last mill they will bear for the benetlt of the stock- 
holders and stock-jobbers. 

"Third — Manufacturing monopolies, whereby all 
small operators are crushed out and the prices of la- 
])or and products are determined with mathematical 
certainty in the interest of the capitalists. 

"Fourth— Land monopolies, by which the public do- 
main is absorbed by a few corporations and speculators. 

"Fifth — Commercial and grain monopolies, and 
speculation enriching the bloated corporations on hu- 
man necessities."- 



APPENDIX. 4^ 

The working men and farmers then announce it to 
be theii- aim to "restore the government to its original 
purpose.'' which they define to be to "protect property 
and enforce natural rights." "We desire," they say, 
"a proper equality and protection for the weak, and 
restraint upon the strong : in short, justly distributed 
burdens and justly distributed powers." These, they 
affirm are Ameaican ideas, the very essence of Amer- 
ican independent e, and to "advocate the contrary is- 
iinworthy the sons and daughters of an American 
Republic." 

Who is so blind that he does not "discern the signs 
of the times ?" There is near at hand a struggle that 
will "try men's souls." If you, reader, have in yon 
the heart of a patriot, it will be warmed with emo- 
tions of love for yoiir country, and like a true man, 
you will be found in the ranks of the common people, 
contending for the immortal principle of human 
equality. If you are contaminated with venality — if 
you have in you the heart of a Benedict Arnold — the 
rich capitalist will enlist you on his side, for he has 
in his possession the money bag ; and by bribery, bj7 
the aid of a venal press, and base appeals to the basest 
passions of the base, he will endeavor to rally to his 
standard his hireling supporters, and by their aid 
strive to keep down under his feet the working popu- 
lation of this nation. 

Years ago, when I read of the efforts of the labor- 
ing men of Europe for their rights, as shown in the 
aims and objects of the International Society, I said, 
"when the working men and farmers of America be- 
gin in earnest to strike for their rights, then will my 
heart be enlisted in the great cause, and so long as the 
Good Being shall see fit to preserve my life, will I bat- 
tle with tongue and pen to hasten on the period when 
the glorious dream of Jefferson shall be realized, and 
all be indeed equal." I believe the time is not far dis- 
tant in the history of this country, when tlie laws 
shall be so perfect and the administration of tliem so 
complete, that there will be practical equality among 
the people and the divine command "thou shalt love 
thy fellow man as thyself," be practically enforced as 
the supreme law of the land. 

That ''all men are created equal," implies that prac- 
tical equality ought to be maintained among men, 
else it is a meaningless expression, so far as the rights- 

4* 



50 APPENDIX. 

of men are concerned. It means that in society all 
are by nature equal, and no artificial fetters ough.t to 
Tbe permitted to bind the hands of any. The .track 
shonld be clear, so that all might have an even chance 
in the race toward the goal of mental and moral per- 
fection. There shonld be no hindrances set up by the 
laws or customs, or conditions of society, to any ; but 
every child born ought to have an ev;n start with ev- 
■ei-y other child, Inequality of conditions exists among 
men because governments and laws are immature. 
The few shonld not l)e permitted to clutch the surplus 
Avealth of the nation ; but all surplus wealth should, 
be in the possession of the State, for the common lien- 
efit, that the youth of t'le land may be completely ed- 
ucated and protected from paui)erism and prepared 
for the sublime otlice of citizenship. 

We may define a true and perfect government or 
commonwealth, in the words of the divine teacher of 
men, "Thoushalt love tliy fellow man as thyself." 
The object of good government is to compel the per- 
formance of the natural obligations of man to man. 
It is true that government cannot directly mmx)el man 
to love his fellow man ; but it is the office of the 
school master to instil into the minds of youth the 
sentiments ot love and patriotism, and fidelity and 
. duty. Government is responsible for the education 
-of the people. To the goverument we must look to 
encourage and sup])ort those schools and institutions 
of learning that shall lead all citizens to realize their 
obligations to each other and to society. Government 
should enforce the duties resulting from the natural 
obligation to love our fellow man as ourself. Our 
free school sytem is basetl on this fact. Many indi- 
vidunls nnv tnxes to educate tlie cliildven of poor inen 
who would not give a cent for tiiat purpose volunta- 
rily. The government compels the performance of 
this grand duty. The government should crystalize 
in its laws the command, " Love thy neighbor as thy- 
self." 

Let us see for a moment wliat kind of society or 
state that would be in which tliis divine law was prac- 
tically carried out and enforced. No fraternity could 
loe bound more closely in its obligations of charity. 
Every child would be bountifully clotlied, fed and 
completely educated, cared for and protected. Every 
widow and every orphan would receive a bountiful 
pension. Who would fail to love sucha government? 



APPENDIX. 5 1 

Who would not be willing to die in defence of such 
noble institutions? Tlieve would be no such word 
known as "selfishness" in such a well ordered s:)ciety. 
Every one would live and labor for other's good and 
not for his own. He would be compelled to do so, 
whether he felt like doing so or not, as every rich 
man is compelled to pay taxes to support free schools, 
thougli some sordid ones bite their lips with indigna- 
tion because compelled to contribute to the education 
of otliers' children. But the law says to him, " Thou 
slialt love thy neighlxM.- as thyself," "thou-y/iaZnove," 
so far as to give willingly or unwillingly of thy sul)- 
stance for the education of the children of thy unfor- 
tunate or less prosperous neighl)or. His children thou 
must bless — with thy money paid into the publicschool 
fund— willin rly or unwillingly, thou shalt, so far as 
thy action < are concerned, practically "love thy neigh- 
boV as thyself.'' But our free school system is only 
the shadow of good tnings to come. The pensions 
given to orphans and widows of soldiers who fell in 
the service, are but the shadow of good things to come. 
Every widow and every orphan will one day, in this 
free and happy Republic, draw pension from govern- 
ment — not as paupers — liut as rightful heirs ; for each 
good and true citizen will say, "Every mother in 
America is my mother." I will assume to be the fath- 
er of the fatherless. I will do all in my power to 
have it said, "it is good for a child to be born." If it 
is right that we should love our fellow men as our- 
self, the State is obligated to enforce the practical ob- 
servance of all actions properly growing out of this 
■duty. Every person living under the shadow of this 
divine law has rights growing out of this law. It is 
the duty of the government to enforce natural rights. 
It is a natural law shat the tather shall love his chil- 
dren. His duty is to watch over and protect his child. 
The law of the land punishes the parent for neglect; 
tor there is such a thing as "criminal neglect." The 
father must fulfill the duties and obligations of a 
father. The child can demand protection. The child 
has rights growing out of its condition as a helpless, 
dependent child. The law of the land must enforce 
the natural obligation of the father to protect his 
child. If it is the supreme law of God and nature 
that we should love our fellow man as ourself, then it 
is the ofiiceof goveniment to enforce the ohh'gQticn 
growing out of this dimne law. Love is, and has 



52 APPENDIX. 

ever been held by tlie enlightened, the supreme law_ 
It was engraven on a tomb of one of tiie Pharaos at 
Thebes, more than three thousand years ago, "I have? 
given bread to the hungry ; water to the thirsty -; 
clothes to the naked, and shelter to the stranger."" 
Four thousand years look down upon the saying of the 
Rig Veda, " The Kind mortal is greater than the great- 
est in heaven." 

To this law of love all laws must ultimately be con- 
formed. Whatever is contray to ]»ve must one day 
come to an end. "I know," says Theodore Parker, 
"man will tiiumph over matter; the people over ty- 
rants ; right over WT on g ; truth over falsehood ; Jove 
over hate." Upon the ultimate, final and complete 
triumph of love hangs the hope of the universe. The 
world becomes civilized as men learn to love one an- 
other. Stop the onward progress of a divine idea, 
who can ! Selfishness and cruelty must perish. What 
a change will come over the face of this world! Ar- 
mies will one day cease to muster for war. Navies 
will ride the seas no more. Complete equality will 
prevail among men. The freedom and happiness of 
every individual will be secure. Each will practical- 
ly love his neighbor as himself. I repeat, inequality 
of conditions exists among men because governments 
and laws are immature. Man is yet a savage. Oh, if 
we could but lift the curtain of the future and be- 
hold the glorious panorama of the world as it will be 
when the people have got full control of all States,, 
and when kings and priests and aristocrats shall be 
unknown, then would we behold a picture that would 
gladden every heart. The ponderous roller of en- 
lightened reason, truth jind love, must yet pass over 
the world, leveling all ineqalities of (cndition. The 
time will come when mankind will indfi d be one 
family, and when one child of G( d will 1 e just as 
well off as ai. other. Is God the faiher of ns all, and 
are we all brethren and joint inheritors of this world, 
when a few get all and the many nothing? Yes, ev- 
ery child born ought to have an even start with every 
other child. Is not this Cod's world, and are not all 
alike his offspring? Why then should the few be 
permitted to clutch the surplus wealth of the na- 
tions ? 

It is worth while to note particularly how inequal- 
ty of conditions among men is brought about. Mon- 
ey gained by honest industry is bestowed by God» 



APPENDIX. 53 

■By industry, it is said we gain wealth ; but this say- 
ing is false, J^o man can by honest industry become 
very wealthy. It is not by industry great fortunes 
have been gained. Look at the great landed estates 
.possessed by the feudal lords of Europe. In the mid- 
<lle ages all Europe was subjugated by the Gothic and 
Vandal tribes. The chiefs divided up the lands be- 
tween themselves, and (as in England,) the law of 
primogeniture has brought iown the landed estates 
whole and unbroken to the descendants of those mili- 
tary chiefs. 

Any one can see that these chiefs looked only to 
their own selfish interests and of their postei'ity. The 
laws were made in the interest of the rich. The sons 
of the lords are all provided for by the laws ot" Eng- 
land, even to-day. The church and the army furnish 
"sinecures," "livings," large "pay,"to the sons of the 
rich only. Thus it has ever been that selfishness ha?s 
cursed th 3 world ; for nearly all the laws that govern 
mankind to-day have been dictated by selfishness. 
The inalienable rights of man have not been reg^ar- 
ded, but only the interests of the ruling class — the 
rich. 

We are accustomed t » consider that to be right which 
is legitimate, which is lawful. Is it right for a very few 
men to own the lands of England, Ireland and Scot- 
land ? Those few are a privileged class. They do no 
manual labor, but they nre supported by the toil and 
sweat of other men, whom God designed to be their 
equals, and who are their peers in all respects but that 
these monopolize the earth that God has designed to 
l)e as free as the air we breathe and the water we 
drink. They hold this land by the same right 
that the slave-master of the south held his 
slave — by the law of force — md not by any 
natural right. It is amazing that in this enlightend 
age' when in all lands, it is conceded by all fair-mind- 
ed men, that all just government is founded on the 
sovereignty and consent of the governed, and that its 
purpose is to protect the weak and restrain the strong 
— enforcing natural rights — it is amazing I say, that 
the oppressed millions of England, Ireland and Scot- 
land do not assert their rights to the equal protection 
of the laws, and bring down the land monopolists to 
the same level as other men— dividing up the lands 
equitably among the people to whom it rightfully be. 
longs. How much better are those landlords than 



54 APPENDIX. 

were the slave-buyers and slave-sellers of the South? 
They seize upon and appropriate to their own use the 
profits of otlier men's labor. 

The first thing in importance to the happiness of 
mankind is the suppression of monopoly in lands. 
God and nature give no right to any man of any more 
of earth's surface than when tilled by his own hands 
will supply liis necessities. The only right that any 
man can set up to any more than an equitable portion 
of God's domain is the "legal" right. The common 
law favoring land monopoly has come down to us 
from the dark ages, when might made right, and 
when [ a few military cheiftains divided habitable 
Europe between themselves, holding the rest of man- 
kind as vassals and serfs The common law found- 
ed in wrong ought not to be considered bindiiig to-day. 
The statute laws of the country are made by the peo- 
ple, and the people will not always be willing to let 
the few alone reap advantage from the laws. Indi- 
vidual rights does not mean the privilege of the incli- 
vidual to plunder his neighbors. No man has a right 
to gras]) more than his just share of God's gifts to' 
His chikben. The same arguments must be resorted 
to, to justify land monopoly as were used to justify 
human slavery. "When the few own all the lands the 
people are not better off than were the negro slaves of 
the South. Land monopoly places the many under the 
heels of the few, destroying the independence and 
happiness of the great majority of mankind, reducing 
them to practical vassalage. When the few own all 
the lands, they dictate to the many the terms on 
which they will allow them to live at all. In this 
country land rents are becoming higher and higher. 
In England and Ireland the tiller of the soil gets only 
a tithe of the profits of his own labor while the land- 
lord seizes upon the bulk. The laborer is reduced to 
the greatest indigf nee, while the land-lord wallows 
in luxury. '^\\e time will come in this country when 
the landless will be in the condition of the Irish 
peasantry, unless there comes the change that I an- 
ticipate. 

i.ei It be a fundamental law that no man can 
hold lands that he does not occupy, and that his home- 
stead shall be a limited number oi' acres (say 40, 80, or 
160) of tillable land. Let the surplus lands be apprais- 
ed, and the owners paid for them by the State, and 
let the State then sell the lands to the landless on 



APPENDIX.' 55 

equitable terms until every acre shall be cultivated 
by the actual owners. 

That a half dozen men do not own every acre of 
land in Iowa, is not that there is not that many men 
in the United States able to purchase every acre 
nor that there is any law to prcvenc ; but that they 
can make more out of their money at present by 
lending it at ten per cent to individuals at the same 
time that government pays them from five to seven 
per cent on the same in gold. But the testimony 
comes up from the Atlantic States and the Middle 
States, that the land is gravitating into a few hands. 
Every patriot should feel alarmed at the prospect of 
America's becoming like England and Ireland — a 
land in which the laborer is lield down undei- asnr- 
vile yoke. As soon as the country becomes settled, and 
there are no more wild lanas, tlien will the fetters 
begin to press down into the flesh of the tiller 
of the soil. The capitalist will be king, and the 
reign of Caligula will be mild compared to the rule 
of the land monopolists. Already the people can 
scarcely bear up under the yoke — but at present it is 
as "soft as downy pillows are," compared to what it 
will be. See what miserable pig-stys are erected f"r 
the renter to live in on the large farms to-day ; at the 
same time that the land owner dwells in a fine man- 
sion, and stables his horses in a building that costs- 
ten dollars to where the renter's cabin costs ten cents. 
And how will it be when there are no more home-- 
stetids to be taken ? And what will the tiller o-f the" 
soil receive when he fi^nds himself "bound hand andi 
foot," and at the mercy of liis landlord? He will be a 
poor, miserable, beggar slave! worse off than Avaa 
the negro slave of the South, for the master will not be- 
bound to support him in sickness and old age, as was 
the slave master bound to support his negro slaves 
while they lived. Land monopoly and the slave sys- 
tem belong together. They are twin relics of barbar- 
ism. The slave system of the southern Confederacy 
was a merciful system compared to that of a few 
owning all the lands, and being free from the obli- 
gation to feed, clothe and watch over their farm la- 
borers all their lives. 

The elements, air, water and land belong to man by 
an inalienable right. You might as well monopolize 
air and wat^r as land. You might as well buy and 
sell men as to monopolize the land. You violate a 



56 



APPENDIX. 



^natural liglit tlie same in tJie one case as in the other. 
I have a lig^lit to life. \ cannot live without land. 
I have a natural rif?ht to lilieity. I cannot be free 
without land. I liave a natuial right to the pursuit of 
happiness. I cannot maintain this right without land. 
Why argue this question, when we have Ireland be- 
fore us, and Scotland, yea, and even good old Eng- 
land V 

The land monopolist holds his acres by the law of 
force, just as the slave-master held his slave, He has 
no right to any more land than is necessary to his sup- 
port. He has a right to a patch six feet long and 
three feet wide when he is dead, for a grave, (unless 
happily cremation steps in,) and while he lives he has 
•a natural right to just so much land as when tilled 
i)y his own hands will supi)ly his necessities, and no 
^^ore — and "possession is ovnership." It is not his 
when he has abandoned it. The land by right l)elong3 
to the man that plows it, as the air belongs to the man 
that breathes it, and tiie water to the man that drinks 
it. There is land enough in the United States alone, 
.suitable for tillage, to give every man in the world 
that lives by tilling the soil, forty acres. Why then 
need any American be poor and wait for bread? 

Eight miles north-west from the city of Des Moines 
is almost an entire townsliip of land, with scarcely 
a house on it— virgin prairie land, beautiful and 
rich, as is to be found in the world ; the sod as yet un- 
broken by the plow, while the land all around is in 
cultivation. Here might be dwelling hundreds (I 
might almost say thousands) of happy families; but 
a few speculators in lioston and New York are hold- 
ing it for a l)ig price. AVhat grants of public domain 
have been given to railro id (iomnanies ! Wlien the 
government will allow one man to own thousands of 
acres of land and thus retard its settlement, or give 
him control over the liberty of his fellows, it is amon- 
atrous abuse ; but when it grants millions of acres to 
corporations, language fails— words cannot express, 
the magnitude of the wrong. ' 

A just government will protect property and enforce 
natural rights. It will not protect property in man 
but it will enforce the natural right of every man to. 
life, liberty and the pursuit of luippiness. It will not] 
protect the individual in tlie unjust privilege of own- 
ing more land than is needful for his support ; ])ut it 
•3vill enforce the natural right of every man to land 



APPENDIX. 57 

enough to afford him subsistence. Every oianhas a 
natural right to the field that he tills, 

"The earth is tlie Lord's and the fullness thereof." 
God has bestowed this bountiful gift upon the children 
of men ; nor did he say "a few may monopolize the 
land ;" but the voice of Truth, which is the voice of 
God, declares "all men are created equal," all have 
Dy nature the same right to this earth and its fullness. 
The laws of States and nations cannot abrogate tlie 
laws of God. 

Two boys attend the same school ! They are of 
equal age, of equal strength, of equal health, recite 
in the same classes, are of equal intelligence. They 
graduate at the same time, both having the same 
standing in their classes. They go into business. The 
one uses as much industry as the other, and is as dili- 
gent in business, exercising as much thought and in- 
telligence, and physical power. The one makes per- 
haps five liundred dollars per day ; the other not more 
than five dollars per day. Why the differeuc^? The 
question is answered in one word — capital. The one 
is rich and has capital to invest. The other is poor 
and depends upon industry alone. This is all legiti- 
mate, but is it right ? What equality is there here ? 
rt is legal but not right. The laws are framed to help 
the rich. From the feudal ages down to the present 
time, wealth has in reality dictated all the laws. They 
bear hard upon labor. Money increases by its own 
growth, so to speak. To be sure gold buried in the 
ground will not increase ; but by the laws and cus- 
toms of society, the possessor of money may double 
his fortune every ten years. In the language of Des 
Moines' greatest banker and capitalist,* " Ten per cent 
interest will eat the world up." This is a great wrong ; 
for thus the few gather the increasing wealth of the 
^tate. I lay this down as a fundamental truth ; The 

LAW THAT ALLOWS ONE MAN TO RECEIVE MORE THAN 
ANOTHER FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL OR 

MENTAL TOIL, IS WRONG. The tiiues are out of joint 
when one man can gather a thousand dollars as the 
fruit of one day's labor while another man working 
just as hard cannot make five dollars to save his life.. 
All wealth comes primarily from the ground, and is 
brought forth by the plow. What large cities are to 
be seen on the deserts V What habitations of men ? 
But go where the soil is rich and productive and you 

♦B. F, Allen 



58 APPENDIX. 

behold jjopulation and cities. Where men have to de- 
vote every moment of tlieir time to the procuring of 
their daily bread, there can be no accumulation of 
wealth. Where bread fails nothing else has any val- 
ue. In the heart of the Sahara desert Crcesus starv- 
ing might vainly cry "A million of dollars for a loaf 
of bread." If the world were all ban-en, so that m6n 
could barely, by constant labor, procure food and 
clothing, there could be no accumulation of capi- 
tal. Gold could have no value where there was 
nothing to exchange it for, though one possessed as 
much as is in the vaults of the bank of England. 
Money represents surplus products. If there were 
no products of labor beyond what would satisfy the ■ 
immediate wants of the producers, money could have 
no value whatever. Food is first to be looked after, 
and the abundance or scarcity of food regulates the 
price of all other products ; for one might be in con- 
dition to sell even his birthright for a mess of pottage. 
It takes nearly all the farmer's sui-plus grain to pay 
his taxes. Unless he is to some extent a capitalist, 
unless he can seize upon the profits of other mens la- 
bor, either by holding them as slaves and working 
them on his plantations, as Avas the case in the South, 
or else T»y robbing tliem of their hard earnings after 
the manner of the English landlord, the farmer can- 
not become rich ; because the soil has a limit to its 
productiveness, and there is a limit to the amount of 
work one man can do. No vote of House or Senate 
can make mother earth yield the farmer fifty thous- 
and dollars per year salary, which is equivalent to 
fifty thousand bushels of wheat. The average yield 
of wheat per acre is fifteen buf hels. It would require 
me man to plow sow aiid reap 3333I3 acreas of wheat 
to yield fifty thousand dollar's worth at the rate of 
one dollar per bushel. God pays the farmer his salary 
and it is not a large salary either. One man can farm 
Avith his own individual labor not more than eighty 
Hcres of tillable land, even of our beautiful prairie,, 
and with the aid of all modern machinery and improv- 
ed farm implements into the bargain. This might 
produce in wheat an average per year of twelve hun- 
dred bushels, or, in corn, twenty-four hundred bush- 
els. So, about twelve liuudred dollars per year is all 
God pays the farmer for Jus toil. "By the sweat of 
thy face thou shalt eat bread." Out of this the farm- 
er has to pay for farm implements and machinery. 



APPENDIX. 59 

taxes for the support of Government, purchase cloth- 
ing and shoes for his family, groceries, etc. The per 
diem of the farmer is less than five bushels of wheat 
or ten bushels of corn. The point tliat I would make 
is this: If any human being grasps the price of one 
hundred bushels of wheat for his days labor, he vir- 
tually steals ninety-five bushels of Avheat. If he 
seizes upon only the price of one hundred bushels ot 
corn for his days' work he steal? only ninety bushels 
of corn. Whoever on the face of this earth, where 
all men are by nature equal, grasps more as the price 
of his days labor than God pays the industrious farm- 
er is A theif and a robber to that extent, and this is 
one great cause of the inequality of conditions among 

111 611 . 

Since the farmer is limited by the fiat of God, in the 
amount of his daily earnings, all men should be lim- 
ited to like extent, by the laws and customs of the 
country. One mans wages should be just the same 
as another's, and no more. 

But the rich' capitalist is allowed by the laws to 
skim all the cream off the hard earnings of the toil- 
ing millions. Thus the laws allow a portion of man- 
kind to seize upon what rightfully belongs to anotlier 
portion ; tlius anarchy reigns, and the rights of prop- 
erty are not enforced, guarded or protected. 

Does not every man serve his country ttiat has an 
honorable occupation? Are not all public servants 
that labor? I say ttiat every industrious citizen is as 
much a servant of the public as is the president of the 
United States. The farmer serves the state by pro- 
ducing what renders the state habitable. He is a 
more important official than presidents or kings. Let 
the conditions of society be such that every man 
must follow so ne useful occupation, and let no em- 
ployment bring higher compensation than the indus- 
trious farmer receives from the hand of God. Let an 
equitable price for daily labor be established, based 
upon the bounty of mother earth. When no man 
can monopolize more than his just share of earth's 
products, (all who are alike industrious receiving like 
pay,) then all may have ample leisure for mental 
culture and social enjoyment ; but under the present 
unjust and barbarous system, the many are robbed of. 
almost all privilege of culture and enjoyment. 

Society should be so crystalized that every man 
would occupy an important place in it and feel iiis 



'^o APPENDIX. 

responsibility to the public as if elected to the oflice. 
Jt is one man's office to raise grain; another's to make 
shoes for the i)ublic ; another's to Mork in iron : an- 
other's to work in wood, etc. ; all are oflScials doing 
service for the State, and should be so recognized, and 
their salaries made sure ; and when they beccme old 
and worn out in the public service, they deserve to 
draw a pension as much as ary retired army officer. 

That all «re public officials Mho can deny? Can 
the state be maintained, and leave off agriculture and 
the mechanical arts? Are not the men devoted to 
these pursuits, essential elements of the common- 
wealth? Yea, ^Tie essential ekments. Are they not 
as important as soldiers to an army? And if the 
State makes provision for her soldiers why not for 
her citizens devoted to her service, as are the farm- 
ers and mechanics ? Should not the State see, at least 
that these upbuilders of all civilization are protected 
in their rights, and not plundered and robbed of 
their rightful earnings? It should watch over them 
like a parent from the cradle to the grave. 

But some, it is said, have spent much time and mon- 
ey to gain good education, and ought they not receive 
higher wages for their labor than those who have no 
education? President Grant has prepared himself 
for his high office by much study and [sacrifice: ought 
he not receive higher wages than the common farmer 
that feeds a threshing machine? The thresher 
needs little knowledge of books, say you, to fit him 
for his office, and why should he expect as much for 
his time and labor as General Grant? 

I would try to answer this by saying that accord- 
ing to our theory of government, the State owes 
every child a good education. The state is expected 
to prepare its citizens for the office of citizenship : 
bence our free schools, universities, agricultural col- 
leges, etc, supported at the public charge. General 
Grant was educated by the government for the pro- 
fession of the soldier : another boy is prepared by the 
:State in its schools and colleges, for the oflice of the 
farmer. The State should not be partial, but treat 
all its children alike. If the State has been partial to 
•General Grant, and hasgiverrhim better opportunities 
of acquiring knowledge than it gave the poor farmer 
that feeds the threshing machine, must the latter be 
punished all his life for the State's neglect? Must 
ins family be punished and starved for the State's 



APPENDIX. 6r 

having made a pet of one of its children, and neg- 
lected another? 

One man's children deserve edncation as well as 
another's, and one man is snppposed to haye as great 
burdens to baar as another. It is tlie allotted por- 
tion of each man to bring up his family. IS'o man^ 
can have any greater work than this to do, unless he 
has the privilege of nursing his aged parents, or of 
supporting his orphaned brothers and sisters ; but as 
a rule one man's needs are reckoned as great as the 
needs of another, and tlierefore one man's income- 
should be equal to that of another. 

The primary object of all human effort is subsis 
fence. It is to be presumed that it requires as much 
to subsist one as anothei', therefore the income of each 
should be the same. 

There is a great struggle going on in this country, 
no less mighty and important because silent and with 
out force of arms. The mouse that ate the cable off^ 
worked silently, but diligently, and the consequence 
was, that wanting the cable, the ship was lost. Cap- 
ital is gnawing ol? the cable— aye, it is perforating' 
the bottom of the great Ship of State, as if a million 
of worms were boring gimlet holes through it, until 
soon the floods will come pouring in and the ship go 
to the bottom of the sea and there remain for ever 
unless the people awaken from their slumber of false- 
sftcurity and betake themselves to work at the pumps 
for dear life. 

The people begin to see the danger that lies in ex- 
cessive wealth in the hands of individuals and petty 
corporations. It appears to be the rule that as a man 
increases his wealth, he loses his patriotism, and 
when he becomes a millionaire, he scruples not to en- 
ter the halls of legislation, to turn by bribery, if pos- 
sible the representatives of the people from the path 
of duty.. His vanity leads him to suppose that by his 
superior wisdom he has gotton all his great fortune, 
and that every man that is poor, is so because he is a 
practical fool, and that, therefore, republican govern- 
ment is, after all a farce. "Let the poor man be dis- 
franchised" will be the demand made by the rich man 
after a while. Rob the people of all their substance 
first, and then take from .them their only means of 
protection against actual enslavement — the ballot. 
Pampered politicians will be found ready to betray 
the people, and to connive at the disfranchisement 



APPENDIX, 62 

of the toilers, in tlie cities, first and afterward in tlie 
State at large on the plea that "only tax payers ought 
to vote." 

The people have about come to the conclusion that 
if rich men and bloated corporations are the natural 
enemies to freedom and free government, great 
wealth shall not longer Ije allowed to concentrate in 
the hands of individuals and petty corporations, but 
must be poured into the lap of the State alone. If 
capital in the hands of individuals and petty corpora- 
tions IS in actmil antagonism to human freedom and 
equality, we must suppress the enemy at all hazards. 
No man must 1)8 permitted to accumulate a vast for- 
tune if the danger lies here. The government of the 
people, by the people, for the people must be main- 
tained. 

Who is to blame if a revolution luisten upon nsV 
Certainly not tlie laboring men and fai iners, but only 
unprincipled capitalists. It is no fiction, but a notor- 
ious fact, the danuiging effects of excessive wealth 
in the hands of ))rivate parties and petty corporations 
upon the country and government. The corporations 
that pluiuler the people, openly defy tlie laws; wit- 
ness, foi' instance, the railroad war in "Wisconsin. 

But one corporation sliould be allowed to exist, and 
that the Stat(! itself. All corporations are states, and 
when controlled by a few men are continually mak- 
ing war upon thepublic welfare. They are only le- 
galized "rings," licensed to defraud and plunder the 
people. There is not a single coiporation in existence 
except the State, that is not a scourge to the public. 
Let us look at the objects to be accompoli.-hed by a 
petty corporation, ns insurance, f(U- instance. If in- 
surhuce is a good tiling, tli(! lives, and the property of 
all citizens ought to be insured. Then the State ought 
to take hold of it. It was so of old, that if the cabin 
of the liack-woodsman was burned, and his nide fur- 
niture and household goods destroyed, the neighbors 
came together and builL liim a new cabin — a better 
one, perhaps, than the lirst, and fitted it up again so 
that the settler's latter estate was, as a general rule 
better than his former, jllere was practical insur- 
ance. So the people as a body shouhl niiike good the 
loss of individuals. The Slate might insure every 
man's life, and every man's property, and it be little 
heavier tax upon the public, thantiie insurance com- 
paniesjevy at present. See the millions (almost) of 



. ' APPENDIX. 63 

useless men supported by the public, as insurance 
agents and officers. Tlie State sliould see to this mag- 
nificent charity, and not leave it to private companies 
for the "cliarity" of petty corporations is only to 
plunder the public, and enrich themselves. Let the 
oflice of every corporation (if it be a good office) be as- 
sumed by the great corporation — the State— which is 
responsible directly to the people ; and let no man be 
permitted to become so rich as to be independent of 
the people — so rich that he can spend millions to cor- 
rupt legislation ; for then he is a petty sovereign, and 
a practical enemy to American freedom. 

These reforms must come, because man is destined 
to rise to a higher plane of civilization, and with true 
civilization comes the realization of the highest 
Cliristianity. The people are struggling toward 
emancipation from the thraldom of short-sighted 
selfishness. We read of attempts at co-operative 
farming, co-operative factories, etc. This means a 
willingness that others should be as well off as our- 
•self — a willinguess to be equal with our neighbor, and 
not above him. And then the Trades Unions, and the 
Grange organizations are educating the people up to 
a higher and truer love and brotherhood that will be- 
come general. Societies and lodges will be merged 
into the great society — the State— of which all are 
members, and brethren : a society of mutual helpful- 
ness, of mutual benefits, of mutual love and good 
will, wherein my neiglibor's child will be as dear to 
me as my own ; and every child will be blessed in my 
■eyes ; and every helpless creature shall have a lodge- 
ment in my heart of hearts ; and my love shall be so 
intense as to shine brightly upon all the little ones of 
enrtb nmliinon all who reach up thfir hands for 
help— then will each man be indeed a very Christ of 
love, radiant with the spirit of the Divine Teacher. 



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